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

If the snow were too heavy, my friend would not go to the theater.

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

• być: to be
• do: to
• nie: not
• pójść: to go
• zbyt: too
• ciężki: heavy
• kolega: the friend
• teatr: the theater
• śnieg: the snow
• gdyby: if

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?

Both zbyt and za can mean “too” before an adjective.
• za ciężki is more colloquial.
• zbyt ciężki is slightly more formal or emphatic.
In many contexts they’re interchangeable, but zbyt often appears in written or formal speech.

Why do we say do teatru and not na teatr?

Polish uses do + genitive for going to most places or buildings: do szkoły, do sklepu, do teatru.
na + locative is used for events or surfaces, e.g. na spektakl (to a performance) or na pocztę sometimes colloquially, but the standard way to say “to the theatre” is do teatru.

What person, number, and gender does poszedłby represent?

poszedłby is third person singular masculine in the conditional.
• poszedł = past tense, masculine singular (“he went”)
• -by = conditional marker
Together they mean “he would go.”

Why is there no article before kolega, and does Polish have articles?

Polish has no definite or indefinite articles (no equivalents of “a” or “the”). Context and word order convey definiteness or indefiniteness, so you simply say kolega for “a friend” or “the friend.”

Can I change the word order, for example putting kolega before gdyby?

Yes. Polish word order is flexible because case endings show the roles of words.
For instance:
Kolega nie poszedłby do teatru, gdyby śnieg był zbyt ciężki.
This shifts emphasis slightly but retains the same overall meaning.