"This is an egg."

Translation: To jest jajko.

[sirwootalot]

Why not "to jajko" - would that be "the egg" or "this egg" instead of "this is an egg"?

[gabe81]

It would mean both 'This egg' ('Które jajko chcesz?/which egg do you want?') or 'This is an egg', but rather in colloquial speech. It depends on the context really.

Perhaps to avoid confusion, you should use the sentence only in the first meaning.

[mgaristova]

why not "To jest jajkiem?" Is this formula appliable only to persons and animals?

[immery]

Because of "to". It "to" is in the sentence, but does not mean "the" , it changes case after jest to nominative.

[mgaristova]

I think I got it. Thank you:)

[ManoelSalv2]

There is no declesion when using demonstrative ( To, Ta, Ten, Tamto, Tamta, Tam)

[alik1989]

Not true. Using demonstrative pronouns does not affect declension. Besides, "tam" is not a demonstrative pronoun.

[mat420942]

I wrote ten jest jajko oops

[MarcoDelpo]

I wrote "to jajko" and it was correct

[Jellei]

Yeah... but then it's like a short answer to a "What is it"? question when someone is pointing at an egg.

[deactivated user]

Oh, so when you ask, you say for example:
"To jajko?"
And the answer can be
"Tak, to jest jajko"

[Emmet894874]

With Ten, ta and to you apply each depending on masculine, feminine or neuter. Is this always obvious (excluding exceptions) by the ending e.g jajko = neuter so To can you assum if it doesn't end in A or O that Ten is the correct one to use?

[Jellei]

Yes, while there are exceptions, you generally can look at the ending to figure it out. Just make sure that you're looking at the basic form (Nominative singular).

-a is mostly for feminine nouns, -o/-ę/-um for neuter ones, consonants for masculine ones.