Нет бы ей использовать мебельный чехол — она поцарапала стол.

the table

Breakdown of Нет бы ей использовать мебельный чехол — она поцарапала стол.

• она: she
• использовать: to use
• ей: to her

Questions & Answers about Нет бы ей использовать мебельный чехол — она поцарапала стол.

What does нет бы mean in this sentence?

Нет бы is an idiomatic expression of reproach or criticism. It means something like:

• she could have at least...
• instead, she should have...
• why didn’t she just...

So Нет бы ей использовать мебельный чехол — она поцарапала стол means roughly:

• She should have used a furniture cover, but instead she scratched the table.

The phrase is emotionally colored: the speaker is annoyed and thinks the better choice was obvious.

Why is it ей, not она?

Because the construction is:

нет бы + dative + infinitive

So:

• ей = to her / for her
• использовать = to use

Literally, the grammar is something like:

• Why wasn’t it for her to use...
• or She could have just used...

But in natural English, you would not translate it literally. The important thing is that нет бы regularly takes the person in the dative case.

Examples:

• Нет бы мне промолчать. = I should have just kept quiet.
• Нет бы ему позвонить. = He could have just called.