Breakdown of Szef chce, żebyśmy zaakceptowali ten dokument bez podpisu.
ten
this (m)
chcieć
to want
szef
boss (m)
dokument
document
żeby
so that, in order to
bez
without
zaakceptować
to approve
podpis
signature
Questions & Answers about Szef chce, żebyśmy zaakceptowali ten dokument bez podpisu.
Why is the past tense form zaakceptowali used here when the boss wants us to do it now or in the future?
In Polish, when you express a desire or give a command involving a different subject (the boss wants vs. us to approve), you use żeby followed by the past tense form of the verb (the L-participle). Even though it uses a past tense form, it refers to a present or future action.
Why does it say żebyśmy zaakceptowali instead of żeby zaakceptowaliśmy?
The personal ending for 'we' (-śmy) attaches directly to the conjunction żeby, making żebyśmy. The verb that follows is left in its base past-tense form for 'they' (zaakceptowali). Attaching the ending to żeby instead of the verb is the standard and most natural way to build this structure in Polish.
Could we use the imperfective form akceptowali here instead?
You would only use the imperfective akceptowali if the boss wanted us to be in the continuous process of approving documents, or to do it repeatedly. Since this is about completing the action of approving one specific document (ten dokument), we need the perfective verb zaakceptować, which becomes zaakceptowali here.
Why is the phrase bez podpisu and not bez podpis?
The preposition bez (without) always requires the noun that follows it to take the Genitive case. For the masculine inanimate noun podpis (signature), the Genitive form is made by adding -u, resulting in podpisu.
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