Breakdown of On nie ma telewizora w pokoju.
on
he / it (m)
mieć
to have
nie
no / not
w
in / on (a day)
pokój
room
telewizor
TV set
Questions & Answers about On nie ma telewizora w pokoju.
Why is it telewizora and not telewizor?
Because of the negative word nie. The verb to have (mieć) usually takes the Accusative case for its object, like On ma telewizor (He has a TV). But when you make the sentence negative, the object must switch to the Genitive case. That is why we add -a to make it telewizora.
How do I know to add -a instead of -u to telewizor in the Genitive case?
For masculine nouns that are objects (not people or animals), the Genitive ending can be either -a or -u. You often just have to memorize which one to use, but there are helpful patterns. For example, household appliances, electronics, and tools almost always take -a.
Why does the word for room change to pokoju here?
We are stating a location using the preposition w (in), which requires the Locative case. The basic dictionary form is pokój (room), but when we apply the Locative case rules, it becomes pokoju.
What happened to the letter ó from pokój when it changed to pokoju?
This is a very common Polish spelling rule! The letter ó in the final syllable of a word often changes to a regular o when a grammatical ending is added to the word. You will see this vowel shift happen all the time.
Learn On nie ma telewizora w pokoju and more in Polish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free