Если мне некогда готовить, я ем мюсли с йогуртом на завтрак.

If I don’t have time to cook, I eat muesli with yogurt for breakfast.

Breakdown of Если мне некогда готовить, я ем мюсли с йогуртом на завтрак.

• я: I
• есть: to eat
• с: with
• на: for

Questions & Answers about Если мне некогда готовить, я ем мюсли с йогуртом на завтрак.

Why is it мне некогда, not я некогда?

Because некогда is used in an impersonal construction in Russian.

Russian often expresses ideas like I have no time, I am cold, I feel sorry, etc. without using a normal subject like я. Instead, it uses a person in the dative case:

• мне = to me / for me
• тебе = to you
• ему = to him

So:

• Мне некогда готовить literally feels like For me, there is no time to cook
• Natural English: I don’t have time to cook

That is why мне appears here instead of я.

What exactly does некогда mean here?

Here некогда means there is no time or I don’t have time.

So:

• Мне некогда готовить = I don’t have time to cook

A learner should be careful, because некогда can also mean once / at one time / formerly in some contexts, but that is a different usage.

In this sentence, it clearly means no time.

A close synonym is:

• Мне нет времени готовить = I have no time to cook

But мне некогда is very common and natural in everyday speech.

Why is готовить in the infinitive?