Language/Czech/Grammar/Conditional-Mood

Conditional Mood in Czech

Czech Conditional Mood

The meaning of the conditional

The conditional mood (kondicionál or podmiňovací způsob) expresses wish and desire, hypotheticality, uncertainty. It is usually translated into English as would (or could), and is commonly used with If… constructions that are contrary-to-fact (irreal).

1) Kdybysme měli 10 milionů dolarů, nepracovali bysme. If we had 10 million dollars, we wouldn’t work.

2) Chtěla bys bydlet v České Republice? Would you like to live in the Czech Republic?

3) Kdybyste dostali letenku zdarma, kam byste se vydali? If you got a plane ticket for free, where would you head off to?

4) Chtěla by dítě. She would like a child.

5) Proč bys nechtěl být učitelem? Why wouldn’t you want to be a teacher?

6) Bylo by fantastické, kdybychom zrušili všechny zkoušky. It would be fantastic if we were to cancel all exams.

7) Kdyby volili jen vojáci, náš kandidát by drtivě zvítězil. If only soldiers could vote, our candidate would win convincingly.

Note that the Czech conditional can be translated into English variously. In (7), for example, the phrase Kdyby volili jen vojáci… could also have been translated into English as If only soldiers voted….

The formation of the Czech conditional: the basics

The conditional is formed from the past tense of the main verb (the so-called lparticiple: měli, chtěla, dostali, vydali…) in combination with a conditional auxiliary. Just like in past tense of the indicative, the l-participle agrees in person, gender, and number. Negative conditionals are conveyed by negating the l-participle (nepracovali in (1) and nechtěl in (5) above). Aspect is active so both imperfective and perfective verbs can be used as required by the sense: in (7) above, volili is imperfective (voting as an activity or possibility engaged in by people now and in the future), but zvítězil is perfective (one specific candidate would win in a given election).

Like the past-tense auxiliary (forms of the verb být) the conditional auxiliary changes for person and number and generally must occupy the second-position its clause. Unlike the past-tense auxiliary, there is a conditional auxiliary form for the third-person singular and plural (by).

Forms of the conditional auxiliary

• já: bych* * A substandard variant for bych is bysem (cf. jsem)
• ty: bys
• on/ona/ono: by
• my: bychom (literary) / bysme (spoken)
• vy: byste
• oni/ony/ona: by

(10) Rád bych šel do kina. I’d gladly go to the movies.

(11) Nechtěla bys být svobodná? Wouldn’t you like to be single?

(12) Jel by s námi, kdyby měl čas. He would go with us if he had time.

(13) Co kdybysme šli spát? What if we went to sleep?

(14) Kdybyste mi jen věřili! If only you believed me!

(15) Kdyby zdi mohly mluvit. If walls could talk.

When the verb is reflexive — has a se or si — and is combined with the conditional auxiliary bys, the forms by ses and by sis result.

(16) Být Davidem, co by sis koupil? If you were David, what would you buy yourself?

(17) Koho by ses zeptal na českou gramatiku? Who would you ask about Czech grammar?

Examples

FIRST PART	SECOND PART
KDYBYCH MĚL (M) KDYBYCH MĚLA (F) IF I HAD IF I HAD	KUPOVAL BYCH (M) KUPOVALA BYCH (F) I WOULD  BUY I WOULD  BUY
KDYBYS MĚL (M) KDYBYS MĚLA (F) IF YOU HAD IF YOU HAD	KUPOVAL BIS (M) KUPOVALA BIS (F) YOU WOULD BUY YOU WOULD BUY
KDYBY MĚL KDYBY MĚLA IF HE HAD IF SHE HAD	KUPOVAL BY KUPOVALA BY HE WOULD BUY SHE WOULD BUY
KDYBYCHOM MĚLI (M) KDYBYCHOM MĚLY (F) IF WE HAD	KUPOVALI BYCHOM (M) KUPOVALY BYCHOM (F) WE WOULD BUY
KDYBYSTE MĚLI (M) KDYBYSTE MĚLY (F) IF YOU HAD (PL)	KUPOVALI BYSTE (M) KUPOVALY BYSTE (F) YOU WOULD BUY (PL)
KDYBY MĚLI (M) KDYBY MĚLY (F) IF THEY HAD IF THEY HAD	KUPOVALI BY KUPOVALY BY THEY WOULD BUY (M) THEY WOULD BUY (F)

Source

http://cokdybysme.net/pdfs/conditionalcz1108.pdf

http://utkl.ff.cuni.cz/~rosen/public/GGG/Czech_essent_grammar.pdf

Other Lessons

• Gender
• Verb There to be in Czech
• Dative Case in Czech
• Comaratives and Superlatives
• Present Continuous in Czech
• Verbs
• Modal Verb (Must) in Czech
• Prepositions
• Verb to be with names and places
• Accusative Case in Czech