"To jest mały pomidor."

Translation: This is a small tomato.

[RedViperMartell]

Why is "pomidor" used here instead of "pomidorem", which is the instrumental case?

[tadjanow]

You only use instrumental with jest when associating two nouns with each other, e.g. 'To warzywo jest pomidorem' - 'This vegetable is a tomato'.

Here you're just pointing and saying 'This is a tomato' and the construction in Polish is 'To jest [noun in nominative case]'.

[RedViperMartell]

Thanks! So instrumental is only used with identifying one noun as another noun?

[tadjanow]

Yes. Pronouns work too - I could say e.g. '(Ja) jestem pomidorem' - 'I'm a tomato' when I feel that I need to ketchup

[immery]

personal pronouns - like nouns
possesive pronouns- like adjectives

[immery]

yes ant then there is

noun to (jest) noun
both nouns in nominative

[sugarbagel]

This is so helpful, thank you.

[kool_kierra07]

sugarbagel is such a cool name! where are you from?

[kool_kierra07]

:)

[kool_kierra07]

ya! i got it right! my mama is from poland and it is hard! how is that possible?

[susannah07]

I prefer understanding over lerning rules, but in case I haven't found the logic yet. So, the noun following 'to' is in nominative case (regardless of a form of byc in between)? Is a way to remember this?

• to jest noun (nom)
• to noun (nom) jest noun (instr)
• noun (nom) to noun (nom)
• noun (nom) jest noun (instr)
• jest noun (instr)

[immery]

Yes you are right, but

• to noun (nom) jest noun - to is only before singular neuter nouns ( can be also *ten/ta) (it means the/this)
• noun (nom) jest tym/tą noun (instrumental) ( means the/this)
• noun (nom) can be replaced by on/ona/ono= he/she/it
• jest noun (inst) means "(he/she/it) is noun"

• jest noun (nom) means "noun is (here/there)" or "(there) is a noun"

• all those rules apply to plurals with "są" instead of "jest"

• it does not apply to I, you, we, you - only jestem noun (instr) etc.
• it does not apply to adjectives or possesive pronouns without nouns.

[Kapral.den]

Why is "This tomato is small" wrong answer? Is it not acceptable translation?

[Jellei]

No, it's a different sentence with a different grammatical subject ("this tomato" instead of "this/that/it").