Breakdown of Ten kościół ma pięćset lat.
mieć
to have
ten
this (m)
rok
year
pięćset
five hundred
kościół
church
Questions & Answers about Ten kościół ma pięćset lat.
Why does the sentence use ma (has) instead of a word for 'is'?
In Polish, you express age using the verb mieć (to have). Literally, this sentence says 'This church has five hundred years,' which is the standard way to say how old something or someone is.
Why is the word for 'years' lat instead of a form of rok?
The word rok (year) has an irregular plural. For quantities of 5 and above (like 500), you must use the Genitive plural form, which changes the word completely to lat. If the church were 2, 3, or 4 years old, you would use lata.
How is the number pięćset (five hundred) formed?
It combines pięć (five) and set, which is the Genitive plural form of sto (hundred). Polish builds the numbers 500 through 900 this way, literally putting together 'five' and 'of hundreds'.
Why is it ten kościół and not ta or to?
Kościół (church) is a masculine noun, so it needs the masculine word for 'this' (ten). You can often guess that a noun is masculine if it ends in a consonant, like the ł here.
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