Learn Russian: Он хотел бы попробовать ваш кофе.

Он хотел бы попробовать ваш кофе.

He would like to try your coffee.

Breakdown of Он хотел бы попробовать ваш кофе.

он

he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)

Questions & Answers about Он хотел бы попробовать ваш кофе.

Why does this sentence use the past tense хотел if he wants the coffee right now?

In Russian, you create the conditional mood ('would like') by combining the past tense of a verb with the particle бы. Even though the desire is happening right now, you must use the past tense form хотел to match the masculine subject Он. This makes the sentence a polite request rather than a direct demand like Он хочет ('He wants').

Can the particle бы go anywhere else in this sentence?

Yes! The particle бы is quite flexible. While it often goes right after the verb (Он хотел бы), it can also go right after the pronoun (Он бы хотел). Both word orders are very common and mean the exact same thing.

Why use the perfective verb попробовать instead of the imperfective пробовать?

He wants to try the coffee one specific time to see how it tastes. Because this is a single, complete action with a clear result, you use the perfective aspect.

Why doesn't ваш кофе change its form since it is the direct object being acted upon?

It is actually in the Accusative case! But кофе is a foreign borrowed word, which means it is 'indeclinable' and its spelling never changes in any case. The word ваш also stays the same because кофе is a masculine, inanimate noun, and masculine inanimate modifiers look exactly the same in the Accusative as they do in the Nominative case.