Breakdown of Kiedy nie mam czasu, nie czytam gazet.
mieć
to have
nie
no / not
czytać
to read
gazeta
newspaper
czas
time
kiedy
when
Questions & Answers about Kiedy nie mam czasu, nie czytam gazet.
Why does gazeta change to gazet here?
Normally, the verb czytać (to read) takes an object in the Accusative case. But because the verb is negated (nie czytam), the object must change to the Genitive case (the Genitive of negation). Gazet is the Genitive plural form of the feminine noun gazeta (newspaper). To form the Genitive plural of feminine nouns, you simply drop the final -a.
The lesson mentions a "fleeting e" for the Genitive plural of some feminine nouns (like matka becoming matek). Why doesn't gazet get an extra "e"?
The "fleeting e" is inserted to break up awkward consonant clusters at the end of a word. If you drop the -a from matka, you are left with the hard-to-pronounce cluster "matk", so Polish adds an e to make matek. With gazeta, dropping the -a leaves gazet. This ends in just a single consonant (t) and is easy to pronounce, so no extra e is needed.
Why is it czasu and not czas in the first half of the sentence?
This is another example of the Genitive of negation. The affirmative phrase "I have time" is mam czas (using the Accusative case). Because the verb is negated (nie mam), the masculine noun czas changes to its Genitive form, which is czasu.
Is the comma strictly necessary in the middle of this sentence?
Yes! In Polish, punctuation rules are very strict about separating clauses. Whenever you have two separate clauses with their own conjugated verbs (here, mam and czytam), you must separate them with a comma.
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