Read the text below. Can you guess the meaning?

 

Czy mógłbyś podać mi moją walizkę? Leży bardzo wysoko. Chciałabym być taka wysoka jak moja koleżanka. Ona na pewno nie musiałaby prosić nikogo o pomoc tylko zrobiłaby to sama. Dziękuję! Czy chciałbyś pójść na kawę?

Could you pass my luggage? It’s lying very high. I wish I was as tall as my friend. I bet she wouldn’t have to ask for help and would do it by herself. Thank you! Would you like to go for a coffee?

 

As you may see in the exemples, by adding special endings to the past forms of the verbs we get conditional forms. The usage is very similar to the English sentences with would and could. In Polish conditional verbs are used to express an invitation, a wish and a hypothetical situation or to ask a question politely.

Chciałbyś iść wieczorem do kina? – Would you like to go to the cinema this evening?
Chciałabym być wyższa… – I wish I was taller…
Myślę, że ona mogłaby to zrobić. – I think she could do that.
Czy mógłbyś podać mi książkę? – Could you pass me the book?

 

CREATING THE FORMS

 

Conditional forms are build by adding particle -by (with personal endings) to a past tense form of the verb (third person singular or plural). Like in the example:

 

CHCIEĆ
(ja)   chciałbym,   chciałabym
(ty)     chciałbyś,   chciałabyś
(on) chciałby,       (ona) chciałaby

(my) chcielibyśmy,   chciałybyśmy
(wy) chcielibyście,    chciałybyście
(oni) chcieliby,           (one) chciałyby

 

note that in conditional forms we mostly use the perfective verbs

poszedłbym do kina not szedłbym do kina
zjadłbyś coś? not jadłbyś coś?

 

LET’S PRACTISE

If the exercise doesn’t work, you may find it here.