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Questions & Answers about Temperatura jest niska.
Why is the adjective niska in the nominative case here, instead of the instrumental case?
When describing something using the verb jest (is) followed only by an adjective, the adjective stays in the nominative (dictionary) case. You only use the instrumental case if jest is followed by a noun, like in Ona jest niską kobietą (She is a short woman).
Does niska mean anything else besides "low"?
Yes! Niski (the masculine form) and niska also mean "short" when talking about a person's height. So Ona jest niska means "She is short."
Could I use the word for "cold" (zimna) instead of niska here?
No, just like in English, we do not say the temperature itself is "cold." In Polish, a temperature is always described as niska (low) or wysoka (high). If you want to say the weather is cold, you can just say Jest zimno (It is cold).
Since temperatura looks exactly like the English word, how is it pronounced differently?
In Polish, the vowels are short and crisp, the "r" is rolled, and the stress falls on the second-to-last syllable: tem-pe-ra-TU-ra. There is no "ch" sound like in the English pronunciation of "temperature."