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Właściciel nie przedłuży umowy, dopóki nie zapłacisz czynszu.

Właściciel nie przedłuży umowy, dopóki nie zapłacisz czynszu.
The owner will not extend the agreement until you pay the rent.
From Lesson 234:Until clauses (dopóki)·Polish

Questions & Answers about Właściciel nie przedłuży umowy, dopóki nie zapłacisz czynszu.

Why is there a nie after dopóki if the English translation is just "until"?
In Polish, when dopóki means "until" (waiting for a change of state), it must be paired with the negative particle nie before the verb. You can think of the literal meaning as "as long as you do not pay the rent." If you just used dopóki without nie, it would mean "as long as" or "while."
Why is zapłacisz in the future tense, when English just says "until you pay"?
Polish is very strict about tense logic. Because paying the rent is an action that hasn't happened yet and belongs to the future, it requires the perfective future tense (zapłacisz). English allows the present tense for future actions in "until" clauses, but Polish does not.
Why does the sentence use umowy instead of the standard object form umowę?
This is a great reminder of the "genitive of negation" rule. The verb przedłużyć (to extend) normally takes a direct object in the accusative case (umowę). However, because the action is negated (nie przedłuży), the case of the object flips to the genitive (umowy).
Does that mean czynszu is also in the genitive case because of the nie?
Exactly! The verb zapłacić (to pay) usually takes the accusative case (czynsz). But because it directly follows nie as part of the dopóki nie structure, the object is forced into the genitive case (czynszu).

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