Breakdown of Нам некогда бывать в барах.
мы
we
в
in / to (direction)
некогда
no time
бывать
to occur / to visit
бар
bar
Questions & Answers about Нам некогда бывать в барах.
Why use бывать here instead of быть (to be) or ходить (to go)?
Бывать is a habitual verb that means 'to tend to be' or 'to visit regularly'. Using бывать instead of быть shows that you are talking about hanging out in bars as a general habit or pastime, not just being inside a bar on one specific occasion. It naturally implies 'frequenting' or 'spending time' at a place.
Why is the sentence structured as нам некогда instead of using мы (we)?
Некогда (there is no time) is an impersonal word. In Russian, when expressing a condition or state using these impersonal words, the person experiencing it takes the dative case. So the nominative мы becomes the dative нам (literally meaning 'to us, there is no time').
What is the difference between некогда and saying у нас нет времени?
They both mean 'we have no time', but некогда is shorter and extremely common in spoken Russian when you are simply too busy to do a specific action. It connects directly to an infinitive verb, making нам некогда бывать a very efficient, natural way to say you are too busy for a certain habit.
I always mix up некогда (no time) and никогда (never). How can I tell them apart?
The secret is the stress! In некогда (there is no time), the stress is always on the first syllable: НЕ-когда. In никогда (never), the stress is on the last syllable: никог-ДА. Also, некогда functions positively, whereas никогда requires a double negative to make sense (such as мы никогда не бываем, meaning 'we never frequent').
Learn Нам некогда бывать в барах and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free