Mamy jeszcze piętnaście minut do końca lekcji.

to have

Breakdown of Mamy jeszcze piętnaście minut do końca lekcji.

• my: we
• lekcja: the lesson
• minuta: the minute

Questions & Answers about Mamy jeszcze piętnaście minut do końca lekcji.

Why does the sentence start with Mamy? Isn’t that literally we have?

Yes. Mamy is the 1st person plural form of mieć (to have), so literally it means we have.

In Polish, mieć is often used in expressions about time available / time left, so:

• Mamy jeszcze piętnaście minut. = We still have fifteen minutes.
• very naturally in English: There are still fifteen minutes left / We’ve still got fifteen minutes left

So this is a normal Polish way to talk about remaining time.

Why is there no word for we in the sentence?

Because Polish usually does not need subject pronouns unless you want emphasis or contrast.

The ending of the verb already shows the subject:

• mam = I have
• masz = you have
• mamy = we have

So Mamy already means we have.
You could say My mamy..., but that would sound emphatic, like we have... as opposed to someone else.

What does jeszcze mean here?