Breakdown of Moje dziecko ma rok, ale tu nie ma tortu!
tu
here
mieć
to have
nie
no / not
dziecko
child
ale
but
mój
my
rok
year
tort
birthday cake
Questions & Answers about Moje dziecko ma rok, ale tu nie ma tortu!
Why does the Polish sentence use ma rok instead of the verb "to be"?
In Polish, age is expressed using the verb mieć (to have). Literally, this says "My child has a year". When someone is exactly one year old, we just say ma rok without needing the number jeden (one).
The word ma appears twice. Does it mean the exact same thing both times?
Not exactly! The first ma means "has", used here to tell the age. However, the second one is part of the fixed phrase nie ma, which translates to "there is no" or "is not present".
Why is the word for cake written as tortu instead of tort?
In Polish, when you state that something is missing or doesn't exist using nie ma, the noun that follows must change to the Genitive case. The basic word for "cake" is tort, but it changes to tortu because it is being negated.
Why is the word for "my" spelled moje here?
Because dziecko (child) ends in -o, making it a neuter noun. Words describing it have to match its gender, so we use the neuter form moje instead of the masculine mój or feminine moja.
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