Nawet gdyby miał kontuzję, grałby w tym meczu.
Even if he had an injury, he would play in this match.
Breakdown of Nawet gdyby miał kontuzję, grałby w tym meczu.
mieć
to have
ten
this (m)
grać
to play
w
in / on (a day)
mecz
match
gdyby
if (hypothetical)
nawet
even
kontuzja
injury
Questions & Answers about Nawet gdyby miał kontuzję, grałby w tym meczu.
Why does the first clause use "miał" without a "-by" attached to it, while the second clause uses "grałby"?
In Polish conditional clauses, the conditional particle by is already built into the conjunction gdyby. Because of this, the verb that follows it just takes the standard past tense form (miał). In the main clause, there is no conjunction to attach to, so the particle attaches directly to the verb to make grałby (he would play).
Could we use "nawet jeśli" instead of "nawet gdyby" in this sentence?
You could, but it changes the meaning from a hypothetical scenario to a real possibility. Nawet gdyby means he doesn't have an injury, but imagine if he did. If you used nawet jeśli, you would usually follow it with the indicative mood (nawet jeśli ma kontuzję) to express that he might actually have an injury right now, but he will play anyway.
How do we know "miał" and "grałby" refer to a male subject without a pronoun?
Both verbs use the masculine singular past tense stem. The conditional mood in Polish is built directly on these past tense forms. If this sentence were about a woman, the verbs would change to match the feminine stem, resulting in Nawet gdyby miała kontuzję, grałaby w tym meczu.
Why does "mecz" become "meczu" in the Locative case here? Doesn't the Locative usually end in "-e" for masculine inanimate nouns?
While many masculine nouns take the -e ending in the Locative case (like sklep becoming w sklepie), nouns whose base forms end in certain consonants like -cz, -sz, -rz, and -c almost always take the -u ending. Because mecz ends in -cz, it becomes w meczu.
Is "mieć kontuzję" the standard way to say someone is injured in Polish?
Yes! While English often prefers the adjective "injured", Polish very frequently uses the verb mieć (to have) with the noun kontuzja (an injury). You could also use the adjective form kontuzjowany, but saying he "has an injury" is extremely natural, especially in sports contexts.
Learn Nawet gdyby miał kontuzję, grałby w tym meczu and more in Polish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free