Przy kasie miałam tylko duży banknot, więc kasjerka zapytała, czy mam monetę.

Przy usually takes the locative case when it means by / at / near.

• kasa = checkout, cash register
• przy kasie = at the checkout / by the cash register

So:

• nominative: kasa
• locative: kasie

That is why you see przy kasie, not przy kasa.

In this sentence, przy kasie means something like at the checkout rather than literally next to the cash register.

The form miałam is the past tense, 1st person singular, feminine form of mieć (to have).

So:

• miałem = I had (spoken by a man)
• miałam = I had (spoken by a woman)

The sentence tells us that the speaker is female.

This gender distinction appears in Polish past tense verbs, which is often surprising for English speakers because English does not do this:

• I had = same for everyone in English
• miałem / miałam = depends on the speaker’s gender in Polish

Here banknot is the direct object of miałam (I had), so it is in the accusative case.

But banknot is a masculine inanimate noun, and for masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular looks the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: duży banknot
• accusative: duży banknot

That is why the phrase stays duży banknot.

Compare this with a feminine noun, where the accusative usually changes:

• duża moneta = a big coin
• mam dużą monetę = I have a big coin

Because mam (I have) takes a direct object, and the direct object here must be in the accusative case.

The basic form is:

• moneta = coin

But after mam:

• mam monetę = I have a coin

So:

• nominative: moneta
• accusative: monetę

This is a very common feminine pattern in Polish:

• kawa → kawę
• książka → książkę
• moneta → monetę

Yes. Kasjerka is the feminine word for cashier.

• kasjer = male cashier
• kasjerka = female cashier

Polish often marks gender directly in job titles and nouns for people. Since the cashier is female here, the sentence uses kasjerka.

This also affects the verb:

• kasjerka zapytała = the female cashier asked
• kasjer zapytał = the male cashier asked

So both the noun and the past tense verb show gender.

Czy is used to introduce a yes/no question or an indirect yes/no question.

Here it means something like:

• whether
• if

So:

• zapytała, czy mam monetę = she asked whether / if I had a coin

This is different from że, which introduces a statement, not a yes/no question.

Compare:

• Powiedziała, że mam monetę. = She said that I have a coin.
• Zapytała, czy mam monetę. = She asked if I have a coin.

So czy is exactly the right word after zapytała here.

This is a very common learner question. Polish does not backshift tenses as consistently as English does.

In English, after a past reporting verb, we often move the next verb into the past:

• She asked if I had a coin.

In Polish, it is very natural to keep the tense that reflects the original question:

• Czy ma pani monetę?
• Zapytała, czy mam monetę.

So mam is normal here.

The logic is often: the cashier’s actual question was Do you have a coin?, so in reported speech Polish often keeps that present tense.

You may sometimes also hear past forms in other contexts, but zapytała, czy mam monetę is completely standard and natural.

Więc means so / therefore.

It links the two parts of the sentence:

• Przy kasie miałam tylko duży banknot
• więc kasjerka zapytała, czy mam monetę

So the meaning is:

• I only had a large banknote at the checkout, so the cashier asked if I had a coin.

The comma is standard before więc when it connects clauses like this.

Other words with similar meanings are:

• więc = so
• dlatego = therefore / that’s why
• zatem = therefore / thus

But więc is very natural and conversational here.

Tylko means only. Its position shows what it focuses on.

Here:

• miałam tylko duży banknot

The idea is: the only thing I had was a large banknote.

In practice, Polish word order is flexible, but changing the position of tylko can slightly change the emphasis.

For example:

• Miałam tylko duży banknot = I only had a large banknote.
• Tylko przy kasie miałam duży banknot = Only at the checkout I had a large banknote.
  (different focus, probably not what is meant here)

So in this sentence, the position of tylko is natural because it highlights what the speaker had.

Polish word order is more flexible than English, but it is not random. The version in the sentence is the most neutral and natural order.

Standard structure here is:

• kasjerka zapytała = the cashier asked
• czy mam monetę = if I have a coin

So the sentence flows naturally: subject + verb + reported question.

You can move things around in Polish for emphasis, but that often sounds marked, poetic, or context-dependent. For a learner, the sentence’s word order is the safest normal pattern.

Literally, moneta means coin.

In this context, though, the cashier is probably asking whether the customer has a coin to help with payment or change, so in natural English the idea may feel closer to:

• Do you have a coin?
• Do you have any small change?

Polish often says exactly moneta / monetę when referring to an actual coin, but in real-life shop situations you may also hear:

• Czy ma pani drobne? = Do you have small change?
• Czy ma pani odliczoną kwotę? = Do you have the exact amount?

So monetę is literally a coin, but the practical meaning in context is related to small change.

Sometimes, yes, but the meaning is slightly different.

• duży banknot = a large banknote / a big bill
• duży nominał = a high denomination

Banknot names the physical object.
Nominał refers more to its value.

So:

• Miałam tylko duży banknot sounds very natural in everyday speech.
• Miałam tylko banknot o dużym nominale is also correct, but a bit more formal or descriptive.

For ordinary conversation, duży banknot is simple and natural.

They are very similar. Both can mean asked.

• zapytała
• spytała

In many contexts they are interchangeable. Zapytała may sound a bit more neutral or standard in textbook Polish, while spytała is also very common in everyday speech.

So you could say:

• kasjerka zapytała, czy mam monetę
• kasjerka spytała, czy mam monetę

Both are correct and natural.

A male speaker would change the first past tense verb:

• Przy kasie miałem tylko duży banknot, więc kasjerka zapytała, czy mam monetę.

The only change is:

• miałam → miałem

That is because the speaker’s gender affects the past tense of mieć in the first clause.

The second past tense verb, zapytała, does not change here, because it refers to kasjerka, who is still female.