Sada nemam vremena da idem u prodavnicu.

to have

Breakdown of Sada nemam vremena da idem u prodavnicu.

• ići: to go
• u: to
• sada: now

Questions & Answers about Sada nemam vremena da idem u prodavnicu.

Why is it nemam and not nisam?

Because the verb here is imati (to have), not biti (to be).

• imam / nemam = I have / I don’t have
• jesam / nisam = I am / I’m not

So:

• Nemam vremena = I don’t have time
• not Nisam vremena, which would be ungrammatical

In Serbian, to have time is expressed with imati, just like in English.

Why is it vremena instead of vreme?

After a negated verb like nemam, Serbian often uses the genitive case instead of the accusative.

So:

• Imam vreme or more naturally Imam vremena = I have time
• Nemam vremena = I don’t have time

Here, vremena is the genitive singular of vreme.

This pattern is very common:

• Imam novac / Nemam novca
• Imam strpljenje / Nemam strpljenja
• Imam vremena / Nemam vremena

Even in positive sentences, imam vremena is extremely common and often sounds more natural than imam vreme when talking about available time in a general sense.