Breakdown of Jestem chora. Czy mogłabym odwołać moją rezerwację?
być
to be
czy
[question particle]
mój
my
móc
to be able to
Questions & Answers about Jestem chora. Czy mogłabym odwołać moją rezerwację?
How do we know the speaker is a woman, and how does that affect the word mogłabym?
We know the speaker is female because she says Jestem chora (I am sick) using the feminine adjective, rather than the masculine chory. Because she is female, she also uses the feminine conditional form mogłabym (could I). A man would say Jestem chory and use the masculine conditional mógłbym.
Could I just say Czy mogę odwołać... instead of Czy mogłabym?
Yes, Czy mogę odwołać... (Can I cancel...) is grammatically correct. However, using the conditional form mogłabym (could I) makes the request softer and much more polite, which is the standard way to speak to customer service in Poland!
Why does moją rezerwację end in -ę instead of -a?
The phrase is the direct object of the verb odwołać (to cancel), so it must take the accusative case. The basic dictionary form is moja rezerwacja, but in the accusative case, feminine words ending in -a change their ending to -ę, which gives us moją rezerwację.
Why is the perfective verb odwołać used here instead of its imperfective pair?