Breakdown of W tej szufladzie nie ma absolutnie niczego.
mieć
to have
nie
no / not
ten
this (m)
w
in / on (a day)
Questions & Answers about W tej szufladzie nie ma absolutnie niczego.
Why do we use niczego here instead of just nic?
The phrase nie ma (there is no / there is not) always requires the Genitive case. The Genitive form of the negative pronoun nic (nothing) is niczego.
I often hear Polish people say nie ma nic. Is that wrong?
In everyday casual speech, Polish speakers often just use nic instead of niczego after nie ma, even though nie ma officially requires the Genitive case. Using niczego as in this sentence is the strictly correct and more elegant way to say it.
Why are there two negative words (nie and niczego) in this sentence?
Polish uses double negatives. When you use a negative pronoun like niczego (nothing), you still have to put nie in front of the verb. A literal translation would be 'There isn't absolutely nothing.'
What case is w tej szufladzie and why?
It is in the Locative case. We use the Locative case after the preposition w (in) when describing a static location, meaning where something is. The basic Nominative form ta szuflada (this drawer) changes to tej szufladzie.