Bez kworum nie możemy głosować.

Bez means without. It requires the genitive case in Polish.

So structurally, bez kworum means without quorum / without a quorum, with kworum standing after a preposition that governs the genitive.

Normally, yes: after bez, many nouns change form because they go into the genitive.

But kworum is usually treated as an indeclinable borrowed noun in Polish, so its form often stays the same in different cases. That means:

• nominative: kworum
• genitive after bez: still kworum

So the case is still genitive by grammar, even though the word does not visibly change.

Polish often adapts foreign words to Polish spelling conventions. So Latin/English quorum becomes Polish kworum.

A useful pronunciation clue:

• Polish w sounds like English v

So kworum is pronounced roughly like KVO-rum, not like English KWO-rum.

Because Polish has no articles. There is no direct equivalent of English a/an or the.

So kworum can mean:

• a quorum
• the quorum
• quorum in a general sense

The exact meaning depends on context. In English, this sentence is most naturally rendered as Without a quorum, we cannot vote.

Nie możemy means we cannot or we are not able to.

It comes from the verb móc = to be able to / can.

Here is the relevant form:

• możemy = we can
• nie możemy = we cannot

This verb is somewhat irregular, so it is worth learning as a pattern rather than trying to predict it from the infinitive every time.

Because Polish often drops subject pronouns when the verb ending already makes the subject clear.

The ending -my in możemy already tells you the subject is we.

So:

• (My) możemy = we can
• (My) nie możemy = we cannot

You can add my for emphasis, but it is not necessary:

• Bez kworum my nie możemy głosować sounds more contrastive or emphatic.

Because after móc (can / to be able to), Polish uses the infinitive of the main verb.

So:

• możemy głosować = we can vote
• nie możemy głosować = we cannot vote

This is similar to English in meaning, though in Polish the second verb is clearly in the infinitive form.

This is an important difference:

• nie możemy głosować = we cannot vote
• możemy nie głosować = we may choose not to vote

So in your sentence, the negation applies to can:

• it is not possible / not allowed for us to vote

If you moved nie to the second verb, the meaning would change completely.

This is about aspect.

• głosować is imperfective
• zagłosować is perfective

In a sentence about whether voting can take place as a procedure, głosować is the natural choice. It refers to the activity/process in a general sense.

• Nie możemy głosować bez kworum = We cannot vote without a quorum

Using zagłosować would sound more like we cannot cast a vote / complete the vote in a specific instance. That can also be possible in some contexts, but głosować is the more standard choice here.

Yes, you could also say Nie możemy głosować bez kworum.

Polish word order is fairly flexible, and different orders create different emphasis.

• Bez kworum nie możemy głosować.
  This puts without a quorum first, so it highlights the condition.

• Nie możemy głosować bez kworum.
  This is also very natural and slightly more neutral.

Both are correct. The original version sounds a bit more formal or rhetorical because it foregrounds the missing quorum.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

bes KVO-rum nye mo-ZHE-my gwo-SO-vatch

A few helpful points:

• bez is pronounced roughly bes because the final consonant is devoiced
• w sounds like English v
• nie sounds like nye
• ż sounds like the s in measure
• ł sounds like English w
• ć at the end of głosować is a soft ch-like sound, often approximated as -tch for beginners

Stress:

• KWO-rum
• mo-ŻE-my
• gło-SO-wać