Lekarka dała mi dziś zwolnienie na dwa dni, więc szefowa powiedziała, żebym została w domu.

Because the sentence is talking about women, and Polish marks gender much more often than English does.

• lekarka = a female doctor
• dała = gave, with a feminine past-tense form
• szefowa = a female boss
• powiedziała = said, again feminine
• została = stayed / should stay, feminine because the speaker is female

So this sentence tells you two things:

1. the doctor is female
2. the boss is female
3. the person who got the sick note and was told to stay home is also female

If the speaker were male, you would get żebym został w domu instead of żebym została w domu.

These are masculine and feminine noun pairs.

• lekarz = male doctor, or sometimes doctor in a general sense

• lekarka = female doctor

• szef = male boss, or sometimes boss in a general sense
• szefowa = female boss

In everyday Polish, if you know the person is a woman, using the feminine form is very common.

Mi is the unstressed dative form of I / me. It means to me or for me here.

With dać you often have:

• dać komuś coś = to give someone something

So:

• dała mi zwolnienie = she gave me a sick note / leave note

Mnie is the stronger form, used for emphasis, contrast, or after some prepositions. In a neutral sentence, mi is the natural choice.

It is the dative case.

The verb dać usually takes:

• the person receiving something in the dative
• the thing being given in the accusative

So in:

• dała mi zwolnienie

we have:

• mi = dative, the receiver
• zwolnienie = accusative, the thing given

It is in the accusative, but for many neuter nouns the nominative and accusative singular look exactly the same.

• zwolnienie is a neuter noun
• nominative singular: zwolnienie
• accusative singular: zwolnienie

So the form does not change, even though the case does.

In everyday Polish, zwolnienie often means a doctor’s note, sick note, or medical leave note.

More fully, people may say:

• zwolnienie lekarskie

But very often lekarskie is omitted when the meaning is clear.

So dała mi dziś zwolnienie na dwa dni is a very natural real-life way to say that a doctor gave someone sick leave for two days.

Here na is used with the accusative to express a period of time: for two days.

• dwa dni is accusative here
• na dwa dni = for two days

This is a common pattern in Polish:

• na tydzień = for a week
• na miesiąc = for a month
• na kilka dni = for a few days

So zwolnienie na dwa dni means the leave covers a two-day period.

Both mean today.

• dziś is a shorter form
• dzisiaj is a longer form

In normal speech, both are common. Dziś can sound a little more compact or slightly more formal/written, but in many situations they are interchangeable.

So you could also say:

• Lekarka dała mi dzisiaj zwolnienie...

Więc means so, therefore, or thus.

It connects the two parts of the sentence:

• the doctor gave the speaker leave for two days
• so the boss said the speaker should stay at home

It shows result or consequence.

Because więc links two clauses, and in Polish it is normally separated by a comma.

So the structure is:

• clause 1: Lekarka dała mi dziś zwolnienie na dwa dni
• comma
• clause 2: więc szefowa powiedziała, żebym została w domu

Polish punctuation is quite consistent about this.

This is a very common Polish pattern used for reported commands, wishes, or instructions.

• powiedziała = she said
• żebym została = that I should stay / for me to stay

In natural English, this whole part is often translated as:

• my boss told me to stay home

Even though Polish uses said plus a subordinate clause, the meaning is often closer to told someone to do something.

Żebym is made from:

• żeby
  • -m

Here -m marks I.

So:

• żebym została = so that I stay / that I should stay

Other similar forms are:

• żebyś = so that you stay
• żeby został = so that he stay / that he should stay
• żebyśmy zostali = so that we stay

This is a very important pattern in Polish.

That is a very common point of confusion.

After żeby, Polish uses a form that looks like the past tense:

• został / została / zostali etc.

But here it is not ordinary past tense. It is part of a structure expressing:

• intention
• wish
• instruction
• expected action

So żebym została w domu does not mean that I stayed at home. It means:

• that I should stay at home
• to stay at home

The feminine form została still agrees with the female speaker.

Because w domu means at home / in the house, which is a location.

• w
  • locative = location
• do
  • genitive = movement toward a place

Compare:

• zostać w domu = to stay at home
• iść do domu = to go home

Since the idea here is staying in that location, w domu is correct.

Yes. Polish word order is flexible, though the original sentence sounds very natural and neutral.

For example, you could move dziś around:

• Lekarka dziś dała mi zwolnienie na dwa dni...
• Dziś lekarka dała mi zwolnienie na dwa dni...

These versions shift emphasis slightly, but the basic meaning stays the same.

The original order is a very normal, unmarked way to say it.

Yes, powiedziała, żebym... is very natural Polish.

Polish often uses:

• powiedzieć, żeby... = to say that someone should do something

English often prefers:

• told me to stay home

So the Polish structure may look more like said that I should stay home, but in natural translation it often comes out as told me to stay home.

Both ways of understanding it are useful.