Breakdown of Nigdy nie zostawiam hasła w lodówce, ale ktoś wpadł na taki pomysł.
w
in
ale
but
nie
not
nigdy
never
ktoś
someone
lodówka
the fridge
zostawiać
to leave
hasło
the password
wpaść na
to come up with
taki
such
pomysł
the idea
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Questions & Answers about Nigdy nie zostawiam hasła w lodówce, ale ktoś wpadł na taki pomysł.
Why is the verb zostawiam in the imperfective aspect instead of a perfective like zostawię?
Zostawiam comes from the imperfective verb zostawiać, which is used to describe habitual, repeated, or ongoing actions. Here the speaker is talking about their regular habit of never leaving the password in the fridge. If you used the perfective zostawię, you’d refer to a single, completed action in the future (“I will leave it once”), which doesn’t fit the intended meaning.
Why is hasła in the genitive case rather than accusative?
In Polish, when you negate a verb (here with nie), the direct object often shifts from the accusative to the partitive/genitive case. So instead of saying zostawiam hasło (accusative), we have nie zostawiam hasła (genitive) to emphasize “not leaving any password.”
What case is used with w in w lodówce, and why?
After the preposition w indicating location, Polish uses the locative case. Lodówka (fridge) in the locative singular becomes lodówce, so w lodówce means “in the fridge.”
What does the phrase wpaść na pomysł mean and how is pomysł declined?
Wpaść na pomysł is an idiom meaning “to come up with an idea.” The noun pomysł follows the preposition na, which takes the accusative case. Since pomysł is a masculine inanimate noun, its accusative singular matches the nominative: pomysł.
What role does taki play in taki pomysł, and how does it agree with pomysł?
Taki means “such” or “that kind of.” It must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it modifies. Here pomysł is masculine inanimate, singular, accusative, so taki remains taki.
Why do we have both Nigdy and nie in Nigdy nie zostawiam? Isn’t that double negation?
In Polish, nigdy (never) by itself is an adverb and does not negate the verb. You still need nie before the verb to form a proper negation. The combination nigdy nie simply means “I never …” rather than two negatives canceling out.
Who is ktoś in this sentence?
Ktoś is an indefinite pronoun meaning “someone.” It functions as the subject of wpadł (“came up with”), so the clause ale ktoś wpadł na taki pomysł means “but someone came up with that idea.”