Saying No, Not, and Nothing | Polish Grammar

This page gives you everything you need to say "no," "not," and "nothing" in Polish from your very first conversation. The good news: the workhorse word nie covers both "no" (the answer) and "not" (before a verb). The thing that trips up every English speaker: Polish requires a double negative. "I know nothing" is literally "nothing not I-know" — and dropping the second negative, the way English does, is simply wrong.

nie = both "no" and "not"

A single small word does double duty. As an answer, nie means "no." Placed directly before a verb, the same nie means "not."

Czy lubisz kawę? Nie.

Do you like coffee? No.

Nie wiem.

I don't know.

Nie mówię po angielsku.

I don't speak English.

Notice there is no helper verb like English "do/don't." You don't translate "I do not know" word for word — you just put nie in front of the verb: nie wiem. The negation sits tight against the verb it negates.

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English needs "do/does/did" to build a negative (I don't know). Polish needs nothing of the sort — nie + verb is the whole story. Forget the English helper verb entirely.

The double negative is obligatory

Here is the rule that feels wrong to an English ear but is non-negotiable in Polish. When you use a negative word — nic (nothing), nikt (nobody), nigdy (never), nigdzie (nowhere) — the verb must still be negated with nie. Both negatives appear; they do not cancel out.

English says "I know nothing" (one negative). Polish says "Nic nie wiem" — nothing not I-know — with two.

Negative word	Meaning	Sentence (note the extra nie)
nic	nothing	Nic nie wiem. (I know nothing.)
nikt	nobody	Nikt nie dzwonił. (Nobody called.)
nigdy	never	Nigdy nie kłamię. (I never lie.)
nigdzie	nowhere	Nigdzie nie idę. (I'm not going anywhere.)

Nic nie wiem.

I know nothing. / I don't know anything.

Nikt nie dzwonił.

Nobody called.

Nigdy tam nie byłem.

I've never been there.

Nigdzie dzisiaj nie idę.

I'm not going anywhere today.

The logic is "negative concord": once a clause is negative, every relevant word agrees with that negativity, including the verb. You can even stack several negative words in one sentence and the meaning stays firmly negative:

Nikt nigdy nic mi nie powiedział.

Nobody ever told me anything.

That is four negative elements (nikt, nigdy, nic, nie) and the sentence simply means "nobody ever told me anything" — they reinforce, they don't cancel.

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The trap for English speakers is the verbal nie. Your instinct after saying "nothing" (nic) is to stop. Don't — you still need nie on the verb. "Nic nie..." should become a reflex.

nie ma — "there isn't / there's none"

One of the most useful negatives in daily life is nie ma, "there isn't / there aren't / it's not here." It is the negative of jest / są ("there is / there are"). Two things make it special:

It is invariable for the present — you say nie ma whether one thing or many things are absent.
The thing that's missing goes into the genitive case (the "of" case), not the nominative. This is the famous genitive of negation.

Nie ma mleka.

There's no milk.

Nie ma czasu.

There's no time.

Nikogo nie ma w domu.

Nobody is home.

In Nie ma mleka, the noun mleko (milk) appears as mleka — that's the genitive. And in the last example nikt (nobody) becomes its genitive form nikogo, paired as always with the verbal nie. You don't need to master the whole genitive at A1, but you should recognise that nie ma drags its noun into a new ending. The full pattern lives on the page Absence and "nie ma".

Przepraszam, nie ma tu wolnych miejsc.

Sorry, there are no free seats here.

The genitive of negation, very briefly

The same genitive shift happens with ordinary negated verbs that take an object. A positive sentence has its object in the accusative; negate the verb and the object usually flips to genitive:

Mam czas. → Nie mam czasu.

I have time. → I don't have time.

Lubię kawę. → Nie lubię kawy.

I like coffee. → I don't like coffee.

Czas → czasu, kawę → kawy: negating the verb pulled the object into the genitive. At A1 you mostly need to notice this happening (it explains why the noun's ending changed); the detailed rules are on Genitive of negation and the dedicated genitive pages. The headline is: a negated verb tends to want its object in the genitive.

Putting it together

Nie, dziękuję — nic nie potrzebuję.

No, thank you — I don't need anything.

Nikt nie wie, gdzie ona jest.

Nobody knows where she is.

Common Mistakes

❌ Nic wiem.

Incorrect — the verbal 'nie' is missing.

✅ Nic nie wiem.

I know nothing.

This is the classic English-speaker error: using nic alone and dropping nie. Polish needs both. "Nic nie..." together.

❌ Nikt dzwonił.

Incorrect — needs the double negative.

✅ Nikt nie dzwonił.

Nobody called.

Even with nikt ("nobody") already negative, the verb still takes nie.

❌ Nie ma mleko.

Incorrect — after nie ma the noun must be genitive.

✅ Nie ma mleka.

There's no milk.

Nie ma forces the genitive: mleko → mleka. Leaving the noun in the nominative is wrong.

❌ Nie lubię kawę.

Incorrect — negated verb takes a genitive object.

✅ Nie lubię kawy.

I don't like coffee.

Positive lubię kawę (accusative) becomes negative nie lubię kawy (genitive). The negation changes the object's ending.

❌ Ja nie do-wiem.

Inventing an English-style helper verb.

✅ Nie wiem.

I don't know.

There is no "do/don't" auxiliary in Polish. Just nie + the verb.

Key Takeaways

nie is both "no" (answer) and "not" (before a verb); there is no English-style "do/don't."
Polish uses obligatory double negation: nic, nikt, nigdy, nigdzie still require nie on the verb.
Negatives reinforce rather than cancel — you can pile several into one clause.
nie ma means "there isn't," is invariable in the present, and puts the missing thing in the genitive.
Negating a verb generally pulls its object from the accusative into the genitive (genitive of negation).

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