Breakdown of Gdyby wygrał milion, rozdałby wszystko lokalnym fundacjom.
wszystko
everything
lokalny
local
wygrać
to win
gdyby
if (hypothetical)
Questions & Answers about Gdyby wygrał milion, rozdałby wszystko lokalnym fundacjom.
Why is it gdyby wygrał but then rozdałby? Shouldn't both verbs have -by attached?
The word gdyby already contains the conditional particle -by attached to gdy (when). Because the 'if' clause already has this particle, the verb just uses the standard past-tense form (wygrał). In the main clause, the -by attaches directly to the past-tense verb to create rozdałby (he would give away).
What is the difference between dałby and rozdałby?
Dałby simply means 'he would give'. The prefix roz- adds the meaning of distributing or scattering things to multiple recipients. So rozdałby specifically means 'he would give away' or 'he would hand out', which fits perfectly since he is distributing the money among multiple charities.
Why do we use the endings in lokalnym fundacjom?
This is the Dative case (Celownik), which is used for the recipient of an action, answering 'to whom?'. Since he is giving the money to the charities, the plural adjective takes the -ym ending, and the plural noun takes the highly regular Dative plural ending -om.
Could I say wszystko by rozdał instead of rozdałby wszystko?