Learn Russian: Если бы картограф знал координаты горы Эльбрус, то он бы не ошибался. - If the cartographer knew the coordinates of Mount Elbrus, then he wouldn't make mistakes.

Если бы картограф знал координаты горы Эльбрус, то он бы не ошибался.

If the cartographer knew the coordinates of Mount Elbrus, then he wouldn't make mistakes.

Breakdown of Если бы картограф знал координаты горы Эльбрус, то он бы не ошибался.

не

not

он

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

Questions & Answers about Если бы картограф знал координаты горы Эльбрус, то он бы не ошибался.

Why doesn't Эльбрус change its case to match горы?

This is a special rule for geographic appositives. While names of cities and rivers usually decline to match their generic noun (like в городе Москве), names of mountains, lakes, and islands typically stay in the nominative case. Since гора is the generic word here, it takes the genitive case (горы) after координаты, but Эльбрус remains in the nominative.

Why do we use the past tense verbs знал and ошибался for a present-tense hypothetical?

In Russian, unreal or hypothetical conditionals are always formed using the particle бы combined with the past tense verb. The past tense form here does not actually refer to the past; it simply signals the subjunctive mood when paired with бы.

Why is the imperfective verb ошибался used instead of the perfective ошибся?

The imperfective ошибался is used because the English translation implies a general, recurring habit of not making mistakes. If the sentence were talking about avoiding one specific mistake on a single occasion, it would use the perfective ошибся.

What is the function of то in the middle of the sentence? Can I drop it?