Questions & Answers about Krótko mówiąc, nie mamy czasu.
What exact form is mówiąc?
It is an adverbial participle, which means it acts like the English "-ing" form used to describe a background action ("speaking"). It is formed by taking the "they" form of the present tense, mówią, and adding -c. The phrase Krótko mówiąc translates perfectly to "briefly speaking" or "in short".
Why does the sentence use czasu instead of the basic word czas?
This is because of the genitive of negation. The positive sentence "We have time" is Mamy czas, where czas is in the accusative case. But when you make the verb negative (nie mamy), the object must switch to the genitive case, which is czasu.
Could I use mówiąc to say "I am speaking"?
No, Polish does not use these words ending in -c to create continuous tenses. To say "I am speaking", you just use the regular present tense verb, mówię. The word mówiąc is only used to link two actions happening at the same time, or in fixed expressions like Krótko mówiąc.
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