Breakdown of Jutro braknie mu drewna i zapasowych elementów.
i
and
on
he / it (m)
jutro
tomorrow
drewno
wood
Questions & Answers about Jutro braknie mu drewna i zapasowych elementów.
Why is braknie used for the future instead of będzie brakować?
Braknąć is the perfective form of brakować (to lack / to run out of). Because it is perfective, its present-tense conjugation (braknie) automatically refers to a completed future action. You could use the imperfective future (będzie mu brakować), but that means he will be lacking it over a continuous period of time, whereas braknie focuses on the specific moment he actually runs out.
Why does the sentence use mu (him) in the Dative case instead of the subject on (he)?
Expressions of lacking in Polish are impersonal. The person who lacks something is not the grammatical subject. Instead, they are put in the Dative case as the experiencer of the situation. So, the sentence is structured more like: Tomorrow, wood will be lacking to him.
Why are drewna and zapasowych elementów in the Genitive case?
Verbs expressing a lack or absence, like brakować and braknąć, always require the thing being lacked to take the Genitive case. Here, the neuter noun drewno becomes drewna (Genitive singular), and the plural phrase zapasowe elementy becomes zapasowych elementów (Genitive plural).
Could I use jemu instead of mu here?