Breakdown of Koniec sierpnia to rocznica naszego ślubu.
nasz
our
to
is (linking copula)
sierpień
August
ślub
wedding
Questions & Answers about Koniec sierpnia to rocznica naszego ślubu.
Why is August sierpnia here instead of sierpień, and where did the "e" go?
We use the Genitive case here to say "the end of August". Sierpień is the dictionary form. When changing it to the Genitive case, we add the ending -a (which is standard for masculine months), and the last -e- drops out completely. This "disappearing e" is a very common pattern in Polish nouns ending in -eń or -ek.
The dictionary word is sierpień with an ń, but sierpnia just has an n. Why did the letter change?
The soft sound is actually still there! In Polish spelling, when the soft letter ń is followed by a vowel (like the -a ending we just added), we write it as ni instead of using the special character ń. So sierpień becomes sierpnia, and the ni combination still makes that soft, squishy sound.
Why does the sentence use to for "is" instead of jest?
In Polish, when you equate one noun phrase with another (like "[Noun A] is [Noun B]"), it is very common and natural to use the word to instead of the verb jest. Using to is especially handy because it allows you to keep both nouns in the basic Nominative case (Koniec and rocznica). If you used jest, you would be forced to change the second part into the Instrumental case (Koniec sierpnia jest rocznicą...).