Breakdown of Ещё бы!
ещё бы
of course!
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Questions & Answers about Ещё бы!
What kind of expression is Ещё бы!?
It is a fixed conversational expression, basically an exclamation of strong agreement or obviousness.
Depending on context and tone, it can mean things like:
- Of course!
- Definitely!
- You bet!
- No wonder!
It is not usually understood word-by-word in normal speech. Learners should treat it as an idiomatic phrase.
Does Ещё бы! literally mean something?
Literally, the words are not very transparent in English.
- ещё often means still, yet, more, else
- бы is a particle often connected with hypothetical or conditional meaning
But in Ещё бы!, the phrase functions as a set expression, so the literal meaning is much less important than the idiomatic one. A rough historical sense is something like Why, of course it would be so!, but that is not how you should translate it in most real situations.
What does бы do in this phrase?