Breakdown of Obawiam się, żebyś nie rozsypał żwiru na podłogę.
nie
no / not
na
on, at / to (motion toward) / for (a meal) / for (waiting for)
żeby
so that, in order to
podłoga
floor
rozsypać
to scatter (a solid)
obawiać się
to fear, to be afraid of (+ Genitive; o + Accusative; że)
żwir
gravel
Questions & Answers about Obawiam się, żebyś nie rozsypał żwiru na podłogę.
Why is there a nie in this sentence when the English translation says "might spill" instead of "might not spill"?
This is called pleonastic (or "dummy") negation. After verbs of fearing like obawiać się or bać się, Polish often uses żeby nie plus the past tense form to express what you are afraid might happen. The nie doesn't actually negate the verb; it simply emphasizes the speaker's anxiety about the unwanted event happening.
If the nie doesn't really mean "not", does it still force the object into the genitive case?
Yes, it does! This is a great detail to notice. Even though the nie in żebyś nie is a dummy word that doesn't change the meaning to negative, it still strictly triggers the Genitive of Negation. That is why the direct object żwir (gravel) takes the genitive form żwiru instead of the accusative.
How do we know it is "you" who might spill the gravel? I only see the third-person-looking word rozsypał.
The "you" is encoded in the conjunction. The second-person singular ending -ś has detached from the verb and attached to the conjunction żeby, creating żebyś. Because the personal ending is on the conjunction, the verb itself is left in the bare past tense form (the L-participle). Together, żebyś ... rozsypał means "that you (a male) would spill". If addressing a female, it would be żebyś ... rozsypała.
Why do we use the accusative na podłogę instead of the locative na podłodze?
Because the action involves motion towards a destination. Spilling gravel onto the floor implies movement, so the preposition na requires the accusative case (podłogę). If you were talking about gravel that was already just lying statically on the floor, you would use the locative case (na podłodze).
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