Breakdown of Wolę, żeby ten dział zmniejszył budżet.
ten
this (m)
żeby
so that, in order to
woleć
to prefer
zmniejszyć
to reduce
budżet
budget
dział
department
Questions & Answers about Wolę, żeby ten dział zmniejszył budżet.
Why is the past tense verb zmniejszył used here when the translation says "reduce"?
Could I just use the infinitive zmniejszyć instead?
No, because there are two different subjects here. You only use an infinitive when the subject of both verbs is the same (for example, Wolę to zmniejszyć - I prefer to reduce it). Because "I" prefer but "the department" does the reducing, you must use the żeby + past-tense structure.
What case is budżet in this sentence? It looks exactly like the dictionary form.
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb zmniejszył. For masculine inanimate nouns like budżet, the accusative form is identical to the nominative (dictionary) form.
Why use the perfective zmniejszył instead of the imperfective zmniejszał?
The speaker wants the department to successfully complete the action of reducing the budget. The perfective zmniejszył focuses on the final result, whereas the imperfective zmniejszał would mean you want them to just be in the continuous process of reducing it.
Learn Wolę, żeby ten dział zmniejszył budżet and more in Polish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free