Breakdown of Kiedy nie ma szefa, sami musimy zdecydować.
mieć
to have
nie
no / not
szef
boss (m)
musieć
to have to
Questions & Answers about Kiedy nie ma szefa, sami musimy zdecydować.
Why is it sami here instead of sam or same?
The word sami means ourselves or by ourselves in this context. It changes to match the subject of the sentence, which is the hidden we (indicated by the verb musimy). We use the masculine personal form sami because the group of people deciding includes at least one man. If it were a group of only women, it would be same.
Why does it say nie ma szefa instead of just using the verb to be?
In Polish, when you want to say that someone or something is absent or not here, you use the fixed phrase nie ma followed by the Genitive case. The base word is szef (boss), and its Genitive form is szefa.
Could we put sami at the end, like musimy zdecydować sami?
Yes, Polish word order is very flexible! However, putting sami at the beginning of the clause puts more emphasis on it. It highlights the contrast: we must do it ourselves because the boss isn't around to do it for us.
Why use zdecydować instead of decydować?
Zdecydować is the perfective verb, which means to make a specific, completed decision. The imperfective decydować would focus on the ongoing process of deciding. In this situation, the group needs to make a final choice to solve a problem right now.