Learn Russian: Она хотела бы вернуть билет, но уже поздно. - She would like to return the ticket, but it is already late.

To say "would like" in Russian, you use the past tense of the verb for "to want" (хотеть) followed by the particle бы. Since the subject is она, we use the feminine past tense хотела. Together, хотела бы creates the conditional mood for a polite wish or request, even if it applies to the present moment.

Why do we use the infinitive вернуть here?

When you express wanting to do something using хотела бы, the action you want to do stays in the infinitive form, just like in the English "would like to return". We use the perfective verb вернуть because returning the ticket is a specific, single completed action rather than an ongoing process.

Why doesn't the word билет change its ending if it is the direct object being returned?

The direct object of an action goes into the accusative case. However, билет is a masculine inanimate noun (an object, not a person or animal). For inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative form is completely identical to the nominative dictionary form. If it were a feminine noun like книга, its ending would change.

Does уже поздно mean that she is physically late?