Saying There Is / There Are | Polish Grammar

This is one of the highest-frequency things you'll ever say in Polish: Is there coffee? — There isn't. You need it the moment you walk into a café, a shop, or a pharmacy. The pattern is short, but it hides a trap: the affirmative and the negative look nothing alike. "There is" uses jest/są with the thing in its plain form; "there isn't" uses the frozen nie ma with the thing in the genitive. Learn the pair together — jest kawa → nie ma kawy — and you'll handle dozens of real situations from day one.

Affirmative: jest (one) / są (more than one)

To say something is there, present, or available, use jest for one thing and są for more than one. The thing stays in its dictionary (nominative) form — it's the subject of the sentence. Polish has no word for "there"; jest alone carries the whole "there is" meaning.

Jest kawa.

There is coffee. / We've got coffee.

Są wolne miejsca.

There are free seats / tables available.

Tu jest apteka.

There's a pharmacy here.

To turn any of these into a yes/no question, just add the question word czy at the front (or keep the same words and raise your intonation):

Czy jest kawa?

Is there any coffee?

Czy są bilety na dzisiaj?

Are there tickets for today?

The natural short answer to Czy jest…? is simply Jest ("There is / Yes, we have it") or Są for the plural. You don't repeat the noun:

— Czy jest świeży chleb? — Jest.

— Is there fresh bread? — There is.

💡

The affirmative is just two words: jest (one) or są (more than one) + the thing in its plain form. To ask, slap czy on the front. To answer "yes", just say Jest / Są — no need to repeat the noun.

Negative: the frozen nie ma + genitive

Here is the asymmetry that catches everyone. You would expect "there isn't coffee" to be nie jest kawa — but it isn't. To deny that something is present or available, Polish uses a completely different, frozen form: nie ma ("there isn't / there aren't"), and the thing goes into the genitive case.

Nie ma kawy.

There's no coffee. / We're out of coffee.

Nie ma wolnych miejsc.

There are no free seats.

Niestety nie ma chleba.

Unfortunately there's no bread.

Two things change at once, and both are non-negotiable:

The verb freezes. It's always nie ma, third-person singular, even for plural things. "There are no seats" is nie ma miejsc — never nie mają. There's no subject for the verb to agree with, so it never moves.
The thing goes genitive. kawa → kawy, chleb → chleba, wolne miejsca → wolnych miejsc. This is the genitive of negation at work: negating existence pulls the noun out of the nominative.

Watch the two patterns side by side — this is the pair to memorise:

Jest mleko. → Nie ma mleka.

There's milk. → There's no milk.

Są pytania? → Nie ma pytań.

Any questions? → There are no questions.

The same flip drives the short negative answer. To answer Czy jest…? with "no", you say Nie ma — not nie jest:

— Czy jest jeszcze zupa? — Nie ma.

— Is there any soup left? — There isn't.

💡

Drill the pair, never the rule alone: jest kawa → nie ma kawy. Affirmative = jest/są + plain form. Negative = the frozen nie ma + genitive. The verb and the case both change at once — that double switch is the whole difficulty.

Practical exchanges

These existence sentences live almost entirely in dialogue. Here's how they actually sound in a shop or café — the affirmative question, the affirmative or negative answer:

— Czy są jeszcze rogaliki? — Tak, są. A może też ciasto?

— Are there any croissants left? — Yes, there are. Or maybe some cake too?

— Macie wolny stolik na dwie osoby? — Niestety nie ma. Może za pół godziny.

— Do you have a free table for two? — Unfortunately not. Maybe in half an hour.

— Czy w pobliżu jest bankomat? — Tak, jest, naprzeciwko apteki.

— Is there a cash machine nearby? — Yes, there is, opposite the pharmacy.

That second exchange shows the close overlap between existence and availability/possession. The shopkeeper's Macie wolny stolik? ("Do you have a free table?") and Czy jest wolny stolik? ("Is there a free table?") ask essentially the same thing, and the negative answer is the same frozen nie ma either way. In everyday speech Masz długopis? ("Do you have a pen?") and Jest długopis? ("Is there a pen?") are near-interchangeable when you just want to know whether the item is to hand:

— Masz długopis? — Nie, nie mam. Ale tam na biurku jest jakiś.

— Have you got a pen? — No, I haven't. But there's one over there on the desk.

Adding a location

Existence sentences very often start with where, then say what's there. Polish front-loads the location, and uses the locative case after w / na (see location with w/na). The existence verb and case rules don't change — only a location phrase is added:

W lodówce jest mleko.

There's milk in the fridge.

Na rogu jest mała kawiarnia.

There's a little café on the corner.

W pobliżu nie ma sklepu.

There's no shop nearby.

That last one combines everything: a location (w pobliżu), the frozen nie ma, and a genitive (sklep → sklepu). It's exactly the kind of sentence a tourist needs and exactly where the affirmative/negative asymmetry bites.

A note on the past and future

For completeness: in the past, "there was / there were" is był / była / było / były (agreeing in gender and number), and the negative is again frozen — nie było + genitive. In the future it's będzie / będą, negated as nie będzie + genitive. The same affirmative/negative asymmetry runs through all three tenses, so the present-tense pair you've drilled here transfers directly.

Wczoraj nie było prądu przez dwie godziny.

There was no electricity for two hours yesterday.

Jutro nie będzie zajęć.

There won't be any classes tomorrow.

Common Mistakes

❌ Nie jest kawy.

Incorrect — the negative of existence is nie ma, not nie jest.

✅ Nie ma kawy.

There's no coffee.

❌ Nie ma kawa.

Incorrect — after nie ma the noun must be genitive, not nominative.

✅ Nie ma kawy.

There's no coffee.

❌ Nie mają wolnych miejsc.

Incorrect for 'there are no seats' — nie ma is frozen and never goes plural in this meaning.

✅ Nie ma wolnych miejsc.

There are no free seats.

❌ Tam jest there kawa.

Incorrect — Polish has no dummy 'there'; jest alone means 'there is'.

✅ Jest kawa.

There is coffee.

❌ — Czy jest jeszcze zupa? — Nie jest.

Incorrect short answer — say Nie ma, not nie jest.

✅ — Czy jest jeszcze zupa? — Nie ma.

— Is there any soup left? — There isn't.

Key Takeaways

There is / there are = jest (one) / są (more than one) + the thing in its plain form. No word for "there."
There isn't / there aren't = the frozen nie ma
- the thing in the genitive.
The verb and the case both switch in the negative — drill jest kawa → nie ma kawy as a single unit.
"Yes" = Jest / Są; "No" = Nie ma (never nie jest).
Existence and availability overlap: Czy jest…? and Masz…? / Macie…? both ask whether something is to hand, and both are denied with nie ma.

Now practice Polish

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Polish→