Если бы у меня был паспорт, я бы поехал в иностранный отель.

If I had a passport, I would go to a foreign hotel.

Breakdown of Если бы у меня был паспорт, я бы поехал в иностранный отель.

• я: I
• в: to
• если: if
• поехать: to go
• паспорт: the passport
• иностранный: foreign
• отель: the hotel

Questions & Answers about Если бы у меня был паспорт, я бы поехал в иностранный отель.

What is the function of the phrase Если бы in this sentence?

Если бы is used to introduce a hypothetical or counterfactual condition. In this sentence, it sets up a situation that isn’t true (the speaker doesn't actually have a passport) by forming a conditional clause. This construction marks the condition as unreal, which is why the past tense is used with the modal particle бы.

Why are the verbs был in the conditional clause and поехал in the main clause in the past tense even though the meaning is about a potential future action?

In Russian, counterfactual or hypothetical conditions are expressed using the past tense forms along with the particle бы. Even though the sentence refers to an action that would take place (going to a hotel) if the condition were met, the past tense doesn’t indicate past time—it’s a grammatical method to express that the situation is not real. So был and поехал function as subjunctive forms rather than true past actions.

Why do both the conditional clause and the main clause include the particle бы?

The particle бы is essential in Russian to mark a clause as hypothetical or counterfactual. It appears in the conditional clause after Если (as in Если бы у меня был паспорт) and in the main clause (as in я бы поехал) to consistently signal that both parts of the sentence refer to an unreal or imagined scenario. Without бы, the statement would lose its subjunctive or conditional character.

What does the construction у меня был паспорт mean, and why is possession expressed this way in Russian?

In Russian, possession is typically expressed using the structure у [person's pronoun in genitive] + [noun]. Here, у меня translates roughly as “I have” or “there is with me,” and был паспорт means “there was a passport.” This is a common idiomatic way in Russian to say that one possesses something, and it differs from how possession is expressed in English.

Why is поехал used to express the idea of "would go" when the action implied sounds future-oriented?

Although поехал is in the past tense form, when combined with бы it creates the conditional mood. In Russian, the conditional mood is formed using the past tense with бы to indicate that the action is hypothetical. So even though the sentence implies a future action (“I would go”), the grammatical structure relies on the past form to signal that the action is contingent on an unreal condition.