Breakdown of Czy cena kryształu zależy od jego twardości?
czy
[question particle]
cena
price
jego
his, its
zależeć od
to depend on
Questions & Answers about Czy cena kryształu zależy od jego twardości?
Why do we use od here instead of a word for "on" like in English ("depend on")?
In Polish, the verb zależeć (to depend) always pairs with the preposition od, which translates literally as "from". So in Polish, things depend "from" something rather than "on" it. The preposition od requires the following noun phrase to be in the Genitive case.
Why is the word for "hardness" written as twardości here?
It is in the Genitive case because it follows the preposition od. The dictionary form is twardość, which is a feminine noun ending in a consonant. A great rule of thumb is that abstract nouns ending in -ość form their Genitive by dropping the soft accent and adding -i, resulting in twardości.
Why is it cena kryształu and not cena kryształ?
We need the Genitive case here to express "of", linking two nouns together to mean "the price of a crystal". For masculine inanimate nouns like kryształ, the Genitive ending is usually either -a or -u. In this case, it takes -u, giving us kryształu.
Why doesn't the pronoun jego (its) change its ending to match the feminine word twardości?
Jego is acting as a possessive pronoun here, meaning "its". Unlike adjectives, the possessive pronouns for "his", "its", and "their" (jego, ich) are "frozen" and do not change their endings to agree with the noun they describe. It stays exactly the same regardless of the following noun's gender or case.