Breakdown of Kiedy telefon ma mało baterii, trzeba go ładować.
mieć
to have
kiedy
when
mało
little
go
it
telefon
the phone
trzeba
to have to
ładować
to charge
bateria
the battery
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Polish grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Kiedy telefon ma mało baterii, trzeba go ładować.
What does trzeba mean in this sentence, and why don’t we see a subject like ja or ty?
Trzeba is an impersonal modal verb meaning “one must” or “you have to.” It never changes for person or number, and it does not take a personal subject. The construction trzeba + [infinitive] expresses a general necessity. You wouldn’t say ja trzeba or ty trzeba—the verb itself carries the idea of “it is necessary.”
Why is ładować in the infinitive instead of a conjugated form like ładuję?
After trzeba, Polish grammar requires the infinitive form of the verb. So trzeba ładować literally means “it is necessary to charge.” If you used ładuję, it would become a personal statement (“I charge”), which doesn’t match the impersonal sense of trzeba.
Why is baterii in the genitive case after mało?
In Polish, quantifiers like mało (“little,” “not much”) govern the genitive. So ma mało baterii = “has little battery (power).” Baterii is the genitive form of bateria. This construction indicates a small quantity of something.
What part of speech is mało here, and how does it function?
Here mało is a quantifier (sometimes called a degree word) modifying baterii. It tells you the amount: “(phone) has little battery.” It is not an adverb modifying a verb, but an adjective‐like word that requires genitive after it.
Why do we use go instead of jego to refer to telefon?
Go is the short form of the masculine singular accusative pronoun (“him/it”). In everyday Polish, direct objects prefer short pronouns (go, ją, je) rather than full forms (jego, ją, jej). So trzeba go ładować means “you have to charge it.”
Is the comma before trzeba mandatory, and what role does it play?
Yes. The comma separates the subordinate clause Kiedy telefon ma mało baterii (“When the phone has low battery”) from the main clause trzeba go ładować (“it needs charging”). In Polish, any sentence starting with kiedy or gdy as a time clause requires a comma before the main clause.
Can I replace Kiedy with Gdy here? Are they interchangeable?
Yes, in most time clauses kiedy and gdy are interchangeable:
• Kiedy telefon ma mało baterii…
• Gdy telefon ma mało baterii…
Both mean “When the phone has low battery.” Some speakers find gdy slightly more formal, but the meaning doesn’t change.
Why is ładować imperfective? Could I use the perfective naładować instead?
Imperfective verbs describe habitual, ongoing, or repeated actions. Here you mean “you need to keep charging your phone” whenever the battery is low—an ongoing/recurring necessity. The perfective naładować would focus on a one‐time, completed action (“to charge it up completely once”), which doesn’t convey the general habit or necessity.