Word
Ten złodziej nie ma adwokata.
Meaning
This thief does not have a lawyer.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Ten złodziej nie ma adwokata.
Since this lesson is about the dynamic passive voice with zostać, can we make this sentence passive?
No. The verb mieć (to have) describes a continuous state of possession rather than a completed action, so it doesn't take the passive voice in Polish. You cannot use zostać or być to say that a lawyer is not had by the thief.
Why does adwokat change to adwokata here?
It is in the Genitive case. The verb mieć usually requires the Accusative case for its direct object. However, any time you negate a verb that normally takes the Accusative, the object switches to the Genitive case. Because adwokat is a masculine personal noun, its Accusative and Genitive forms happen to look identical (adwokata), but the negation nie ma grammatically forces it to be Genitive.
What gender is the noun złodziej?
It is a masculine personal noun. Even though it ends in the soft consonant -j rather than a hard consonant, it follows masculine declension patterns because it refers to a male (or unknown gender) person. If you need to specify a female thief, you would use the feminine noun złodziejka.
Would adwokata change if we put this sentence into the past tense?
No, it remains exactly the same. In the past tense, the sentence is Ten złodziej nie miał adwokata. The rule that a negated direct object takes the Genitive case applies no matter what tense you are using.