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Szef był zajęty, więc nie mógł potwierdzić decyzji.

Szef był zajęty, więc nie mógł potwierdzić decyzji.
The boss was busy, so he couldn't confirm the decision.
From Lesson 152:The past tense of móc (mógł, mogła, mogli)·Polish

Questions & Answers about Szef był zajęty, więc nie mógł potwierdzić decyzji.

Why is it mógł here instead of "mogł"?
The verb móc (can/to be able to) has an unusual past tense. For masculine singular subjects (like szef), the stem vowel changes to ó, making it mógł. For feminine (like mogła) and most plural forms (like mogli), the stem uses an o instead.
Why is the word for decision in the Genitive case (decyzji) instead of Accusative (decyzję)?
This is the Genitive of negation in action! Even though the negated word is the modal verb mógł (could not), the negation carries over to the main action potwierdzić (to confirm). Because you normally confirm an Accusative object, adding nie before the modal verb forces the object into the Genitive case (decyzji).
Why does the sentence use zajęty?
Zajęty (busy) is an adjective describing the boss (szef). Since szef is a masculine noun, the adjective takes the masculine singular ending -y. If the boss were a woman, it would be Szefowa była zajęta.
Why is potwierdzić in the infinitive form?
Just like in English, when you use a modal verb like móc (can/could), the main action verb that follows it must be in its dictionary form (the infinitive). Here, mógł is conjugated for the past tense, so potwierdzić stays in the infinitive.

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