Word
To czerwone znamię jest dziedziczne.
Meaning
This red birthmark is hereditary.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about To czerwone znamię jest dziedziczne.
Znamię is a neuter noun. How does it change in other cases since it ends in -ę?
Just like imię or zwierzę, znamię belongs to a special group of neuter nouns ending in -ę. In most other cases, its stem expands. In the singular, it adds -eni- (genitive: znamienia). In the plural, it adds -mion- (nominative plural: znamiona). Here, it is the subject of the sentence, so it stays in its basic nominative form: znamię.
Why do the describing words end in both -o (to) and -e (czerwone, dziedziczne)?
They are all in the neuter nominative singular to agree with znamię, but they belong to different word classes. To is a demonstrative pronoun (the neuter form of ten). Czerwone and dziedziczne are regular adjectives, and the standard ending for neuter nominative adjectives is -e.
Doesn't the verb jest require the instrumental case? Why is dziedziczne in the nominative?
The verb być (to be) takes the instrumental case when you are connecting the subject to a noun (for example, To znamię jest problemem - This birthmark is a problem). However, when the complement is just an adjective on its own, like dziedziczne (hereditary) in this sentence, the adjective must stay in the nominative case.