Question 1

Why is to used here instead of jest for the word 'is'?

Accepted Answer

In Polish, when you define one noun as another (like 'Hardness is a property'), you have two choices. You can use to and keep both parts in the basic Nominative case, as we do here: Twardość to... właściwość. If you used jest, the second part would have to change to the Instrumental case: Twardość jest bardzo ważną właściwością. Using to is often simpler and very common for definitions.

Question 2

Both twardość and właściwość end in -ość. What gender are these words?

Accepted Answer

They are feminine. Almost all Polish nouns ending in -ość are feminine. This is a very helpful pattern because -ość is the standard ending used to turn an adjective into an abstract noun, much like '-ness' or '-ity' in English (for example, twardy means 'hard', so twardość means 'hardness').

Question 3

Why is the word for 'stones' written as kamieni?

Accepted Answer

It is in the Genitive plural case, which translates to 'of stones' here. The base dictionary word is kamień, which is a masculine noun ending in a soft consonant (-ń). While many masculine nouns take -ów in the Genitive plural, those with soft stem endings usually take -i or -y instead.

Question 4

Why is the adjective ważna in the Nominative case if it is sitting right next to the Genitive word kamieni?

Accepted Answer

Ważna (important) describes właściwość (property), not the stones themselves. Because adjectives must agree with the noun they describe, ważna takes the Nominative feminine form to match właściwość. If it were describing the stones, it would be in the Genitive plural (ważnych kamieni — 'a property of important stones').

Twardość to bardzo ważna właściwość kamieni.

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