Questions & Answers about Nigdzie nie mogę znaleźć mojej skórzanej torebki.
Why does Polish use both nigdzie and nie in the same sentence? Doesn’t that sound like a double negative?
Yes, it is a kind of double negative by English standards, but in Polish this is normal and required. Polish uses negative concord, which means that if the sentence is negative, the other negative words also stay negative.
So:
- nigdzie = nowhere
- nie mogę = I cannot
Together:
- Nigdzie nie mogę znaleźć... = I can’t find ... anywhere / nowhere can I find ...
In standard Polish, you normally must keep nie with the verb:
- Nigdy nie... = never
- Nikt nie... = nobody
- Nic nie... = nothing
- Nigdzie nie... = nowhere
So Nigdzie mogę znaleźć... would be incorrect.
Why is it mojej skórzanej torebki and not moja skórzana torebka?