"This jacket is small."
Translation:Ta kurtka jest mała.
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Why is ,,Tamta kurtka jest mała'' wrong? Why must it be a ,,Ta''?
Thanks for help!
Because "this" is always "ta" "tamta" is always "that"
It is:
This that that
Ta ta tamta
I may be getting a head of myself here, but when is the instrumental case of an adjective used? I remember in one of the earlier lessons we used it for nouns after "to be", so why not an adjective like in this case? Thanks for the help!
There are two nouns in the expression used as a definition, one is a subject and the other is a noun in a position of the direct object. The verb JEST/SĄ requires this noun (and adjective, if there is one there) in instrumental case:
A mouse IS a small animal - Mysz JEST małym zwierzęciem (instrumental)
In the sentence "This jacket is small" there is no definition. There is only one noun in it, "the jacket" (kurtka) in nominative, because it is the subject. The adjective "small" (mały, mała, małe) describes the jacket (the subject). The Polish adjective has to agree with the noun as to the gender, number, and case, so the adjective is feminine, singular, and in nominative case here:
This jacket is small - Ta kurtka jest mała (nominative)
Well, "żakiet" is an accepted answer, it's a piece of women's clothing (you may use Google Graphics).
My first guess would be that perhaps you used the wrong form of "this" ("ten" instead of "ta") and then the algorithm usually shows the closest answer... looking at the letters from the very beginning. If you used "ta", perhaps it was just a bug... that happens sometimes.
When do you use female male or neutral nouns when the subject has no gender/ is an inanimate object? And is there a easy way to remeber that rule?
I'm not exactly sure if I understand the question - you do not "use" a female, male or neuter noun, the noun just is male or female or neuter. "kurtka" is always feminine and nothing will change it. Doesn't matter if it's Matt's jacket or Kate's jacket. I'm not sure if that is what you meant.
The rule of thumb is: look at the basic, Nominative singular form of the noun:
if it ends with a consonant, it's probably masculine
if it ends with -a, it's probably feminine
if it ends with -o, -e, -ę or -um, it's neuter.
There will be exceptions, but that should be your first assumption.
In a previous lesson I changed 'to' to 'ta' and was wrong. When should c to change and when not?
If to is a dummy pronoun meaning it is or this is, then it's not inflected. If it's a demonstrative pronoun, then must agree with the noun it's referring to.
- This jacket is small. - Ta kurtka jest mała.
- This is a small jacket. - To (jest) mała kurtka.
Should I really have this sentence in this chapter? (Sorry for clutter but just had to ask)
The algorithm sometimes just puts a random sentence from previous skills into a totally unrelated skill.
We have the feminine form of the adjective, why not the neuter like in prior units? I thought the adjective onky agrees if it is before the noun.
Could you give an example? I believe the gender agreement between nouns and adjectives always applies, no matter what their position in the sentence is.
Not really. If after "jest" you have a standalone adjective, then the adjective takes Nominative.
If you had a noun phrase (imagine kinda nonsensical "This jacket is a small jacket" = "Ta kurtka jest małą kurtką"), then it takes Instrumental.