# All Slavic languages: conditional sentences



## Thomas1

Hi, 

Could you please provide the translations of the following sentences into your language?
_You_ is used in the 2nd person singular unless stated otherwise, gender specific endings/forms are also welcome. 


If you heat ice it changes into water.
If you (you à plural) don’t come on time we will start without you.
If you worked in this company you would earn more money.
If I were you I would marry her.
If they were redecorating the library we couldn’t be reading here.
If you had passed the exam you would drive a car today.
If she had seen the accident she would have told us about it.
If he had been living in Rome he would have been renting a flat there.
Many thanks,
Tom


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## jazyk

In Czech (I did them myself and ran them by a friend, who okayed them):


If you heat ice it changes into water.
Pokud zahřeješ led, roztopí se.


If you (you à plural) don’t come on time we will start without      you.
Jestliže nepřijdete na čas, začneme bez vás.


If you worked in this company you would earn more      money.
Kdybys pracoval/pracovala v této firmě, vydělával/vydělávala      bys více peněz.


If I were you I would marry her.
Být tebou, oženil bych se      s ní.


If they were redecorating the library we couldn’t      be reading here.
Kdyby      se v knihovně malovalo, nemohli/nemohly bychom tady číst.

If you had passed the exam you would drive a car      today.
Kdybys udělal/udělala zkoušku, mohl/mohla bys dnes      řídit auto.


If she had seen the accident she would have told      us about it.
Kdyby viděla tu nehodu,      pověděla by nám o tom.


If he had been living in Rome you would have been renting a flat      there.
Kdyby bydlel v Římě, pronajmul by sis tam byt.


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## Jana337

jazyk said:


> In Czech (I did them myself and ran them by a friend, who okayed them):
> 
> 
> If you had passed the exam you would drive a car      today.
> Kdybys udělal/udělala zkoušku, mohl/mohla bys dnes      řídit auto.
> 
> 
> If she had seen the accident she would have told      us about it.
> Kdyby viděla tu nehodu,      pověděla by nám o tom.
> 
> If he had been living in Rome you would have been renting a flat      there.
> Kdyby bydlel v Římě, pronajmul by sis tam byt.


A comment on these: There's a theoretical possibility to shift the tenses backwards but hardly anyone speaks like that. They are useful for pedagogic purposes (when you need to illustrate what "if I had had" means) or when you want to sound funny. But otherwise, they are simply ignored. Which means that "if I had had a lot of money, I would have..." and "if I had a lot of money, I would" sound exactly the same in Czech - you can just make the past meaning clear by adding "back then" or another adverbial.

Just for fun:
Kdybys býval/a udělala zkoušku, ...
Kdyby bývala viděla tu nehodu, byla by nám o tom pověděla.
Kdyby byl bydlel v Římě, býval by sis tam pronajmul byt.

Byl/býval are interchangeable (I think at least ) in this context.

Jana


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## Crescent

Good evening, Tom, Jazyk and Jana! 
Here is my contribution to the thread, in my dear Russian: 

*Если ты нагреешь лед, то он превратится в воду.*!1*
*Если вы не придете вовремя, то мы начнем без вас.
*Если бы ты работал в этой компании ты бы больше зарабатывал.
*На твоем месте, я бы вышел за нее замуж.*!2*
*Если бы они ремонтировали библиотеку, то мы не смогли бы там читать.
*Если бы ты сдал экзамен, ты бы смог водить машину сегодня.
*Если бы она увидела несчастный случай, она бы нам об этом сказала. 
*Если бы ты жил в Риме, ты бы там снимал квартиру.

*!1) *I have to say that I hesitated quite a bit whilst translating this sentence, because a literal translation like that ssounds really very odd in Russian. You wouldn't normally use the second person singular here, and instead you would replace it by the infinitive, which is the impersonal form. i.e. _Если* нагреть *лед, то он привратится в воду. 
_*!2) *Again, you can't directly translate *''if I were you''* into Russian, I'm afraid.  The phrase -* если бы я был тобой* doesn't sound very natural to me at all. So I replaced it with *на твоем метсе *which means something like ''in your place in your shoes''.*
*I hope you don't mind.  _
_


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## papillon

I agree with Crescent's comments. Just a few corrections. 

*На твоем месте, я бы вышел за нее замуж на ней женился. 
But if you insist on iteral translation:
Если б я был тобой, я бы на ней женился. Sounds awkward in Russian.

*Если бы ты сдал экзамен, ты смог бы водить машину сегодня.
*Если бы она увидела несчастный случай,  <то> она бы нам об этом сказала. 
*Если бы он жил в Риме, тo он  бы там снимал квартиру.



> You wouldn't normally use the second person singular here, and instead you would replace it by the infinitive, which is the impersonal form. i.e._Если* нагреть *лед, то он пр*е*вратится в воду._


_
_


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## Irbis

Slovenian:

Če greješ led, se spremeni  v vodo.
Če ne boste prišli pravočasno, bomo začeli brez vas.
Če bi (ti) delal v tem podjetju, bi zaslužil več (denarja).
Če bi bil ti, bi se poročil z njo. (Na tvojem mestu bi se poročil z njo.)
Če bi prenavljali knjižnico, ne bi mogli brati tukaj.
Če bi (ti) naredil izpit, bi danes lahko vozil (avto). (also possible "Če bi bil (ti) naredil izpit", but a bit arhaic, I would use this past past tense form only to realy emphasise the past)
Če bi (ona) videla nesrečo, bi nam povedala zanjo. (or "o njej" instead of "zanjo").
Če bi (on) živel v Rimu, bi tam najel stanovanje.


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## jazyk

If it is



> If he had been living in Rome he would have been renting a flat      there.




Then it will be Kdyby bydlel v Římě, pronajmul by si tam byt.[/quote]


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## Thomas1

jazyk said:


> If it is
> 
> Then it will be Kdyby bydlel v Římě, pronajmul by si tam byt.


 
Thank you, I was about to write a different sentence at the begining and changed my mind but did't all remnants.



Crescent said:


> [...]
> 
> *!1) *I have to say that I hesitated quite a bit whilst translating this sentence, because a literal translation like that ssounds really very odd in Russian. You wouldn't normally use the second person singular here, and instead you would replace it by the infinitive, which is the impersonal form. i.e._Если* нагреть *лед, то он привратится в воду. _
> *!2) *Again, you can't directly translate *''if I were you''* into Russian, I'm afraid.  The phrase -* если бы я был тобой* doesn't sound very natural to me at all. So I replaced it with *на твоем метсе *which means something like ''in your place in your shoes''.
> I hope you don't mind.


Not at all. Je compris mademoiselle. À ton place je ferais le même. Same in Polish (_na twoim miejscu_) _Jeśli byłbym tobą_ simply sounds off. I could also use _Gdybym był na twoim miejscu_ which literally translates: If I were in your place/shoes.

Thank you everyone for your contribution! 
Tom


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## Crescent

Thomas1 said:


> Not at all. Je compris mademoiselle. À ton place je ferais le même. Same in Polish (_na twoim miejscu_) _Jeśli byłbym tobą_ simply sounds off. I could also use _Gdybym był na twoim miejscu_ which literally translates: If I were in your place/shoes.



 Vous êtes vraiment très gentil, monsieur.  Excusez-moi, s'il vous plait,  cette petite correction de ma part: il doit être  ''je comprends'' ou bien ''j'ai compris'' mais pas un mélange des deux, hein!   Mais ce n'est pas du tout grave. 
Aussi, il faut que j'ajoute, que je crois que c'est le cas à travers les langues slaves - ce qu'on dit ''à ton place'' au lieu de ''si j'étais toi'' qui est bien possible en français ainsi qu'en espagnol.


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## Thomas1

Crescent said:


> Vous êtes vraiment très gentil, monsieur.  Excusez-moi, s'il vous plait, cette petite correction de ma part: il doit être ''je comprends'' ou bien ''j'ai compris'' mais pas un mélange des deux, hein!  Mais ce n'est pas du tout grave.
> Aussi, il faut que j'ajoute, que je crois que c'est le cas à travers les langues slaves - ce qu'on dit ''à ton place'' au lieu de ''si j'étais toi'' qui est bien possible en français ainsi qu'en espagnol.


<rougi>  Je me suis levé exprès pour correcter mes fautes stupides et voilà elles avaient déjà été correctées. Vos correction sont bienvenues – merci beaucoup. Alors, je comprends et à ta place (ou si j’étais toi ) j’aurais fait le même.

Et maintent revenons au sujet de cette discussion (sinon nous pouvons avoir des ennuis ) pourqui ne vous donnez pas des tradtuctions en ukrainien ? 

Tom


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## Maja

In Serbian (my guess):

​
If you heat ice it changes into water.
Ako zagreješ led, on se pretvori u vodu.

If you (you à plural) don’t come on time we will start without you.
Ako ne dođete na vreme, počećemo bez vas.

If you worked in this company you would earn more money.
Da si radio/la u ovoj kompaniji, zaradio/la bi više novca.

If I were you I would marry her.
Da sam na tvom mestu, ja bih se oženio njome.

If they were redecorating the library we couldn’t be reading here.
Da su preuređivali biblioteku, ne bismo mogli ovde da čitamo.

If you had passed the exam you would drive a car today.
Da si položio/la ispit, danas bi vozio/la kola.

If she had seen the accident she would have told us about it.
Da je videla nesreću, rekla bi nam.

If he had been living in Rome he would have been renting a flat there.
Da je živeo u Rimu, tamo bi iznajmljivao stan.


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## Athaulf

Maja said:


> If you worked in this company you would earn more money.
> Da si radio/la u ovoj kompaniji, zaradio/la bi više novca.



I think this one should actually be:

 Da _radiš _u ovoj kompaniji, zarađivao/la bi više novca.

This is because the English sentence is in the second conditional. Your above translation would correspond to the analogous English sentence in the third conditional: "If you had worked in this company, you would have earned more money." 

The above sentence is identical in Croatian and Serbian. An alternative form would be:

Kad bi radio/la u ovoj kompaniji, zarađivao/la bi više novca.

This form "kad bi..." also corresponds to the English second conditional. Its meaning is almost identical to the form "da...", but I would say that it makes the condition sound somehow more fantastic or impossible. 



> If they were redecorating the library we couldn’t be reading here.
> Da su preuređivali biblioteku, ne bismo mogli ovde da čitamo.


I think the English sentence above would sound much better if it read "...we _wouldn't be able to read_ here." But regardless, since this one is also in the second conditional, the translation should be one of the following:

Da [sad] preuređuju biblioteku, ne bismo mogli ovde da čitamo.
Kad bi [sad] preuređivali biblioteku, ne bismo mogli ovde da čitamo.

The adverb "sad" ("now") is not literally present in the original sentence, but it makes the translation of the present continuous tense more accurate. The Croatian translations are very similar:

Da [sad] preuređuju knjižnicu, ne bismo mogli čitati ovdje.
Kad bi [sad] preuređivali knjižnicu, ne bismo mogli čitati ovdje.


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## mcibor

Polish:


Jeśli podgrzewasz lód, to się zamienia w wodę. or even better:
 
Jeśli podgrzewasz lód, to się roztapia (it melts) 
Jeśli nie przyjdziecie na czas, to zaczniemy bez was.
Gdybyś pracował w tej firmie, to byś zarobił więcej pieniędzy (we are obliged to add: than now) niż teraz.
Na twoim miejscu bym się z nią ożenił (literal is: if I were in your situation)
Gdyby odnawiali bibliotekę, (to) nie moglibyśmy tutaj czytać.
Gdybyś zdał egzamin, to byś dzisiaj już prowadził (samochód - it's not necessary to add a word "car" in this sentence in Polish)
Gdyby widziała (better than zobaczyła) wypadek, by nam o tym (o nim - accident is a "he") powiedziała.
Gdyby żył w Rzymie, to by tam wynajmował mieszkanie.
Have fun!
Michał Cibor

PS. Theoretically in Polish it is possible to use past perfect - czas zaprzeszły,  gdybyś był widział - if I had seen, but since XX century it's out of use and seems funny


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## Włoskipolak 72

mcibor said:


> Polish:
> 
> 
> Jeśli podgrzewasz lód, to się zamienia w wodę. or even better:
> 
> Jeśli podgrzewasz lód, to się roztapia (it melts)
> Jeśli nie przyjdziecie na czas, to zaczniemy bez was.
> Gdybyś pracował w tej firmie, to byś zarobił więcej pieniędzy (we are obliged to add: than now) niż teraz.
> Na twoim miejscu bym się z nią ożenił (literal is: if I were in your situation)
> Gdyby odnawiali bibliotekę, (to) nie moglibyśmy tutaj czytać.
> Gdybyś zdał egzamin, to byś dzisiaj już prowadził (samochód - it's not necessary to add a word "car" in this sentence in Polish)
> Gdyby widziała (better than zobaczyła) wypadek, by nam o tym (o nim - accident is a "he") powiedziała.
> Gdyby żył w Rzymie, to by tam wynajmował mieszkanie.
> Have fun!
> Michał Cibor
> 
> PS. Theoretically in Polish it is possible to use past perfect - czas zaprzeszły,  gdybyś był widział - if I had seen, but since XX century it's out of use and seems funny



Czas zaprzeszły to konstrukcja gramatyczna, która coraz rzadziej znajduje swoje zastosowanie w języku Polaków. Pozwala jednak doprecyzować przekaz, a używanie jej czyni go bardziej barwnym i niewątpliwie ciekawszym.

The past perfect is a grammatical construction which is used less and less frequently in the language of Poles. However, it allows the message to be more precise, and using it makes it more colourful and undoubtedly more interesting.

*Poniżej załączamy przykłady zastosowania czasu zaprzeszłego:*


_Wczoraj poszedłem do krawcowej i całe szczęście, że wziąłem był ze sobą gotówkę, bo nie działał terminal płatniczy._


_Do wczoraj nie umiałem odmieniać przez przypadki, bo jak uczyłem był się w szkole, to byłem bardzo chorowity i w czasie lekcji, na której nasza nauczycielka miała była nas nauczyć, cała klasa była zaraziła się ode mnie ospą._


13. Czas zaprzeszły (plusquamperfectum) w języku polskim


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## Anemona61

Maja said:


> In Serbian (my guess):
> ​
> If you heat ice it changes into water.
> Ako zagreješ led, on se pretvori u vodu.
> If you (you à plural) don’t come on time we will start without you.
> Ako ne dođete na vreme, počećemo bez vas.
> If you worked in this company you would earn more money.
> Da si radio/la u ovoj kompaniji, zaradio/la bi više novca. Kada bi radio u ovoj kompaniji, više bi zarađivao.
> If I were you I would marry her.
> Da sam na tvom mestu, ja bih se oženio njome.
> If they were redecorating the library we couldn’t be reading here.
> Da su preuređivali biblioteku, ne bismo mogli ovde da čitamo.  Da renoviraju/preuređuju biblioteku, ne bismo mogli ovde da čitamo.
> If you had passed the exam you would drive a car today.
> Da si položio/la ispit, danas bi vozio/la kola.
> If she had seen the accident she would have told us about it.
> Da je videla nesreću, rekla bi nam.
> If he had been living in Rome he would have been renting a flat there.
> Da je živeo u Rimu, tamo bi iznajmljivao stan.


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