Breakdown of Na strychu nic nie leży.
nie
no / not
na
on, at / to (motion toward) / for (a meal) / for (waiting for)
nic
nothing
leżeć
to lie
strych
attic
Questions & Answers about Na strychu nic nie leży.
Why does the sentence say nic nie leży instead of just nic leży?
In Polish, double negation is mandatory! Whenever you use a negative pronoun like nic (nothing), nikt (nobody), or nigdy (never), you must also put nie in front of the verb. You are literally saying "nothing is not lying".
The English translation says "in the attic". Why does Polish use na (on) instead of w (in)?
While w generally means "in" and na means "on", Polish uses na for certain specific locations that don't always translate literally to English. The attic (strych) is one of these exceptions. You just have to memorize that "in the attic" is always na strychu.
Why does strych change to strychu here?
It is in the Locative case. Because we are describing a static location (where something is) using the preposition na, the masculine noun strych takes the Locative ending -u.
Why use leży (is lying) instead of just saying the Polish word for "is"?
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