Questions & Answers about Dlaczego ten sos jest zbyt słony?
Could I use za instead of zbyt in this sentence?
Yes, you could absolutely say Dlaczego ten sos jest za słony?. Both zbyt and za mean exactly the same thing when placed before an adjective: "too" (excessively). Za is more common in casual, everyday speech, while zbyt sounds slightly more formal or written, but they are completely interchangeable here.
Does zbyt always go directly before the adjective?
Why does the sentence use the forms ten and słony?
They both have to match the gender of the noun they describe. Sos (sauce) is a masculine noun. Therefore, the word for "this" must be the masculine ten, and the adjective "salty" takes the masculine ending, becoming słony. If you were talking about a feminine noun like zupa (soup), you would instead say ta zupa jest zbyt słona.
Polish has two words for "why". Why use dlaczego here instead of po co?