אילו הבלמים היו תקינים, הייתי עושה רכיבת מבחן.

to be

Breakdown of אילו הבלמים היו תקינים, הייתי עושה רכיבת מבחן.

• לעשות: to do
• בלם: bicycle brake
• אילו: if (counterfactual)

Questions & Answers about אילו הבלמים היו תקינים, הייתי עושה רכיבת מבחן.

Why does the sentence start with אילו? What does it mean here?

Here אילו means if in a hypothetical or unreal sense.

In this sentence, אילו הבלמים היו תקינים means something like if the brakes were in proper working order.

A useful thing to know is that אילו often sounds a bit more literary or formal than אם. In everyday speech, many speakers would more naturally use אם in a lot of contexts, but אילו is very common in written Hebrew and in more formal style, especially for hypothetical situations.

Also, אילו can mean other things in other contexts, but here it is clearly a conditional word: if.

Is this a real condition or an unreal/hypothetical one?

It is an unreal / hypothetical condition.

The structure אילו ... הייתי ... corresponds to English if ... were ..., I would ... rather than if ... are ..., I will ....

So the speaker is not simply describing a possible future situation. The sentence suggests that the brakes are not in proper condition, and because of that, the speaker would not do the test ride.

That is why the Hebrew uses:

• היו = were
• הייתי עושה = I would do / I would take

Why is הבלמים plural? Is brakes normally plural in Hebrew too?