Gdyby śnieg był zbyt ciężki, kolega nie poszedłby do teatru.

to be

Breakdown of Gdyby śnieg był zbyt ciężki, kolega nie poszedłby do teatru.

• do: to
• nie: not
• pójść: to go (on foot, perfective)

Questions & Answers about Gdyby śnieg był zbyt ciężki, kolega nie poszedłby do teatru.

Why do we start with gdyby instead of gdy in this sentence?

gdyby introduces an unreal or hypothetical condition (the protasis of a conditional sentence). gdy simply means “when” for real events. You need gdyby + past tense to express “if (something) were the case” in Polish.

Why is the verb był in the past tense after gdyby, even though we’re talking about a possible future?

In Polish, conditional clauses (protases) use the past tense after gdyby to refer to unreal or hypothetical present or future situations. So “if the snow were too heavy” requires gdyby był.

What does the -by in poszedłby do, and how is the conditional formed?

The enclitic -by attached to the past-tense form marks the conditional (subjunctive). To form the conditional for most verbs you take the past masculine singular form + -by:
• poszedł + by = poszedłby (he would go)
Other persons/genders adjust both the past participle and -by:
• poszłaby (she would go)
• poszlibyśmy (we would go)

Why is zbyt used with ciężki instead of za ciężki?