"My favorite subject at school is history."

Translation: Moim ulubionym przedmiotem w szkole jest historia.

[Bouli5]

Why is "Moim ulubionym przedmiotem" declinated with instrumental, anybody can explain? I'd think the subject should be in nominative form

[immery]

Because "historia" is subject , "Moim ulubionym przedmiotem" is object, and technically it's
"historia jest moim ulubionym przedmiotem w szkole "

It sounds better the way defined translation is, but my translation should be accepted too, if it is not then report.

Also you can use "to" here and not worry about instrumental.

[Bouli5]

Many thanks!

[Mark841597]

Just a question out of curiosity: would "Mój ulubiony przedmiot w szkole jest historią" also be a valid translation?

[Jellei]

No. You cannot define "My favourite school subject" as being "history". You can go the other way round, define "history" as being "my favourite school subject" and say "Historia jest moim ulubionym przedmiotem w szkole". But your version doesn't work.

See Part 1,5 here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/16373167

[Mark841597]

Thanks for the quick answer, as always!

I still don't understand it completely, so I wrote a longer reply in your link. :-)

[petrenko]

I can see how "przedmiot jest historią" is wrong, since it would mean "a subject is history" but I don't get how 'my favourite subject' could be construed as general. I mean, Isn't adding specificity with e.g. "mój ulubiony…", "ten…" or "następny…" enough to make it OK?

[Jellei]

I'm a bit confused by your question. Do you mean that "Przedmiot jest historią" sounds wrong but "Ten przedmiot jest historią" is okay? Yeah, that's probably what you meant.

I would say it this way: imagine that the right side of the sentence has an indefinite article. So for example "Paul is a doctor" makes perfect sense, but "The doctor is a Paul" makes none. Similarly, "History is a subject" is ok. But "The subject is a history" not really, at least not in this meaning and context :)