W piątek mam dyżur do ósmej, dlatego nie przyjdę na zebranie.

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Breakdown of W piątek mam dyżur do ósmej, dlatego nie przyjdę na zebranie.

• mieć: to have
• nie: not
• na: to

Questions & Answers about W piątek mam dyżur do ósmej, dlatego nie przyjdę na zebranie.

What does dyżur mean in this sentence?

Dyżur means something like a duty shift, being on duty, or being assigned to cover a certain time period.

So mam dyżur means I am on duty or I have a shift/duty period.

Depending on context, dyżur can be:

• a doctor’s shift
• a teacher’s duty
• a work rota shift
• a person being responsible for something at a given time

So here, W piątek mam dyżur do ósmej means On Friday I’m on duty until eight.

Why is it mam dyżur and not a single verb meaning I’m on duty?

In Polish, it is very natural to say mam dyżur, literally I have duty.

This is just the normal idiomatic way to express the idea. Polish often uses mieć + noun where English might use a different structure.

Compare:

• mam czas = I have time
• mam spotkanie = I have a meeting
• mam dyżur = I am on duty / I have a duty shift

So even though it sounds a bit literal from an English perspective, mam dyżur is exactly what a Polish speaker would normally say.

Why is it W piątek and not w piątku?