Breakdown of Kiedy montowałem szafę, brakowało mi jednej zapasowej śrubki.
ja
I
jeden
one
kiedy
when
brakować
to lack / to be missing
szafa
wardrobe
montować
to assemble
zapasowy
spare
śrubka
screw
Questions & Answers about Kiedy montowałem szafę, brakowało mi jednej zapasowej śrubki.
Why is the verb brakowało in the neuter form if the speaker is male (montowałem) and the screw is feminine (śrubka)?
The verb brakować is used as an impersonal expression here. You aren't the subject, and neither is the screw. The sentence literally means 'it was lacking to me of one spare screw.' Because the grammatical subject is an invisible 'it', the verb takes the 3rd-person singular neuter ending -o.
Why do we use mi here instead of ja?
With verbs of lacking like brakować, the person who is missing something is treated as the 'experiencer' and must be in the Dative case. mi is the short Dative form of ja (I).
Why does the phrase jedna zapasowa śrubka change to jednej zapasowej śrubki?
The verb brakować always forces the missing object into the Genitive case. Therefore, the feminine nominative phrase jedna zapasowa śrubka (one spare screw) changes its endings to become the Genitive jednej zapasowej śrubki.
Both verbs in this sentence are imperfective (montowałem, brakowało). What would it mean if we used the perfective zabrakło instead?
brakowało describes an ongoing state: the screw was missing the entire time you were assembling the wardrobe. If you used the perfective zabrakło, it would change the meaning to a sudden event—you were assembling the wardrobe and suddenly realized you had run out of screws.
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