Questions & Answers about Chcemy przestać marnować czas.
Why is marnować in the imperfective aspect here? Could we say przestać zmarnować?
You must always use an imperfective infinitive after verbs of starting, stopping, or finishing, like przestać. This is because you can only stop an action that is ongoing or in progress. You cannot use the perfective zmarnować here.
Why did we choose the perfective verb przestać instead of the imperfective przestawać?
We use the perfective przestać because the act of stopping is seen as a single, completed event that we want to achieve. We want to stop and be done with it. If we meant that we want to be in the process of gradually stopping, we would use the imperfective przestawać.
Is it normal to stack three verbs in a row like chcemy przestać marnować?
Yes, verb chains are very common in Polish. Just like in English, only the first verb is conjugated to match the subject (we want = chcemy). Every subsequent verb attached to that thought simply stays in its infinitive form.
Why is the noun czas used instead of the genitive czasu?
The verb marnować takes a direct object in the accusative case. Since czas is an inanimate masculine noun, its accusative form is identical to its dictionary form. You would only switch to the genitive form czasu if the sentence was negative, for example: Nie chcemy marnować czasu.