Breakdown of Gdyby nie zignorowała intuicji, byłaby teraz szczęśliwa.
być
to be
nie
no / not
teraz
now
szczęśliwy
happy
Questions & Answers about Gdyby nie zignorowała intuicji, byłaby teraz szczęśliwa.
How does this sentence show that the condition was in the past, but the result is in the present?
Unlike English, which uses different tenses like 'had not ignored' versus 'would be', modern Polish uses the exact same conditional construction for both past and present conditions. The fact that this is a mixed conditional is shown purely by context and time markers. We know the result is in the present because of the word teraz (now), and logic tells us the action of ignoring happened in the past.
Why is intuicji in the genitive case here?
This is a great reminder of the genitive of negation. The verb zignorować (to ignore) normally takes the accusative case for its direct object. However, because the verb is negated (nie zignorowała), the object must switch to the genitive case, changing the base word intuicja to intuicji.
Why is the conditional particle attached to gdy in the first part, but to the verb in the second part?
The conditional particle by likes to attach to the first stressed word in a clause. In the 'if' clause, it permanently attaches to the conjunction gdy to form gdyby. In the result clause, there is no conjunction, so it attaches directly to the verb to form byłaby. You could technically detach it and attach it to the adverb instead (teraz by była szczęśliwa), but leaving it on the verb is extremely natural and common here.
Why do we use the perfective aspect (zignorowała) instead of the imperfective (ignorowała)?