The post includes:
– notes on how to create the conditional sentences;
– online exercises;
– exercises to download
Reading the previous post you learned how to build conditional verbs. Let’s have a look now how to form conditional sentences to say or speculate about what will happen, would happen or what could have happened.
Gdybym miała więcej pieniędzy, kupiłabym te buty.
If I had more money I would buy those shoes.
Widziałam wczoraj piękne buty! Gdybym miała więcej pieniędzy, kupiłabym je.
Yesterday I saw beautiful shoes. If I had had more money I would have bought them.
Note that in Polish the same sentence can refer to the past or the present, it depends on the context.
How to form conditional sentences?
Gdyby była ładna pogoda, poszlibyśmy do parku.
gdyby – gdy (if) plus the personal ending -bym, -byś, -by, etc. depending on a subject of a sentence (here ‘pogoda’ is the subject, therefore the ending -by needs to be used)
była – the past tense form of a verb (third person singular or plural, depends on a subject of a sentence)
poszlibyśmy – conditional verb
Note that the ending with particle -by- is used twice, which means that literal translation of this sentence is: If the weather would be nice, we would go to the park.
Few more examples. Can you tell which sentences refer to the past and which to the present?
Gdybyś wstał wcześniej, nie spóźniłbyś się na samolot.
Gdybyśmy mieli więcej pieniędzy, pojechalibyśmy do Japonii.
Gdybym nie zapomniał o jej urodzinach, nie byłaby teraz taka smutna.
Na pewno moglibyście zdać ten egzamin, gdybyście tylko uczyli się więcej.
Nie musiałbym teraz iść pieszo, gdybym nie spóźnił się na autobus.
Future conditional forms
Previous sentences refer to the past and the present. The future conditional is formed by using the particle jeśli and the future tense (perfective or imperfective) and is used to talk about things which might happen in the future.
Jeśli będzie ładna pogoda, pójdziemy do parku. – If the weather is nice, we will go to the park.
Jeśli zrobisz obiad, ja pozmywam. – If you cook today, I will do the dishes.
LET’S PRACTISE
Download the exercises here
