Breakdown of Czy w tej opuszczonej piwnicy naprawdę nie ma nikogo?
czy
[question particle]
mieć
to have
nie
no / not
ten
this (m)
Questions & Answers about Czy w tej opuszczonej piwnicy naprawdę nie ma nikogo?
Why does the sentence use both nie and nikogo? Doesn't that mean "there isn't nobody"?
In Polish, double negation is mandatory. When you use a negative word like nikt (nobody) or its forms like nikogo, you must also make the verb negative by putting nie in front of it. So nie ma nikogo literally translates to "doesn't have nobody," but it correctly means "there is nobody."
Why is the word for nobody nikogo here instead of just nikt?
The phrase nie ma (meaning "there is not" or "there are not") always requires the word that follows it to be in the Genitive case. Nikogo is the Genitive form of the negative pronoun nikt.
Why do we use nie ma here instead of nie jest?
Why does the ending of piwnica (basement) change to piwnicy?
Because it follows the preposition w (in) to describe a location, which triggers the Locative case. The feminine noun piwnica changes to piwnicy, and its describing words change to match, giving us tej opuszczonej (this abandoned).