Breakdown of Z jakiego powodu nie mogłyście odwołać wizyty?
nie
no / not
móc
to be able to
jaki
what kind of, what ... like (asks for an adjective)
z
from (+ Genitive)
Questions & Answers about Z jakiego powodu nie mogłyście odwołać wizyty?
Why is the verb mogłyście spelled with an 'o' instead of the 'ó' we see in mógł?
The verb móc (to be able to) changes its stem in the past tense. The masculine singular form uses an 'ó' (mógł). However, for feminine and non-masculine plural forms, this 'ó' changes to 'o', creating the base mogł-. Adding the plural 'you' ending for a group of women gives us mogłyście. If the group included at least one man, the letter 'ł' would change to an 'l', making mogliście.
Why is wizyty in the genitive case here? Isn't it the direct object of odwołać?
Yes, but in Polish, when a sentence is negated, the direct object usually changes from the accusative case to the genitive case. Even though the negative word nie is in front of the helping verb mogłyście, its negative effect passes right through to the object of the main action verb odwołać. So instead of the accusative wizytę, we must use the genitive wizyty.
Why do we use the genitive case for jakiego powodu?
The preposition z takes different cases depending on its meaning. When it means 'with', it takes the instrumental case. However, when it means 'from' or 'out of' (as in 'out of what reason' or 'from what reason'), it always requires the genitive case.
Why use odwołać instead of the imperfective form odwoływać?