Breakdown of Oni nie mają ani cierpliwości, ani ochoty o nim rozmawiać.
on
he / it (m)
mieć
to have
nie
no / not
oni
they (masculine personal)
rozmawiać
to talk
o
about
ani
neither / nor
ochota
desire
cierpliwość
patience
Questions & Answers about Oni nie mają ani cierpliwości, ani ochoty o nim rozmawiać.
Why is there a nie before mają if the sentence already says ani ... ani (neither ... nor)?
Polish uses a mandatory double negative, often called negative concord. Even though you are using ani ... ani, the main verb of the sentence must still be negated with nie. Literally, this translates to 'They do not have neither patience nor desire.'
Why are the words for patience and desire in the forms cierpliwości and ochoty?
They are in the Genitive case. Normally, the verb mieć (to have) takes the Accusative case for its objects. However, because the verb in this sentence is negated (nie mają), any direct objects attached to it must change to the Genitive case.
Why do we use nim for 'him' here instead of another form like jego?
The preposition o (when it means 'about') requires the following word to be in the Locative case. The Locative case form of the pronoun on (he) is nim.
Could I put the word rozmawiać right after ochoty instead of at the end of the sentence?
Yes, you could say ani ochoty rozmawiać o nim and it would be perfectly correct. However, wrapping the phrase around o nim and putting the infinitive verb rozmawiać at the very end is a very natural and common word order in Polish.
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