Breakdown of Я хотела бы купить этот сувенир.
я
I
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
хотеть
to want
купить
to buy (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Я хотела бы купить этот сувенир.
Why do we use хотела бы instead of just saying я хочу (I want)?
Adding the particle бы makes it a polite request, translating to "I would like" rather than the more direct "I want". This is perfect for situations like shopping or ordering in a restaurant where you want to sound polite.
Since the speaker is saying "I would like", why is the verb хотела in the past tense?
In Russian, the conditional mood (meaning you would do something) is always formed by taking the past tense of a verb and adding the particle бы. Because the speaker in this sentence is female, she uses the feminine past tense хотела. A male speaker would say Я хотел бы.
Why did we choose the perfective verb купить instead of the imperfective покупать?
You are talking about a single, specific, completed action: buying this one souvenir right now. The perfective купить focuses on successfully completing that action, whereas the imperfective покупать would imply buying things regularly or the general process of buying.
If этот сувенир is the object being bought, why doesn't its ending change for the Accusative case?
It actually is in the Accusative case! However, for masculine nouns that are inanimate (non-living things like a souvenir), the Accusative form looks exactly the same as the basic Nominative (dictionary) form. This rule applies to the matching pointing word этот as well.