Questions & Answers about Nie mam gotówki, płacę kartą.
Why is it gotówki instead of gotówka?
The basic word for cash is gotówka, but here it changes to gotówki because of the word nie. In Polish, when you say you do not have something, the object switches to the genitive case. Since gotówka is a feminine noun, its ending changes to -i.
Why does karta become kartą at the end of the sentence?
Kartą is in the instrumental case. In Polish, when you use an object as a tool or a method to do something, like paying 'by card', you use this case. There is no need to add an extra word for 'by' or 'with'. For feminine nouns like karta, the -a simply changes to -ą.
Why is there no word for 'I' in this sentence?
In Polish, the verbs already tell you who is doing the action. Mam means 'I have' and płacę means 'I pay'. Adding the pronoun ja (I) is not necessary and would sound a bit unnatural here unless you really wanted to emphasize it.
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