Ways of Translating the Conditional Mood

The Conditional mood formed with the help of the auxiliary verb would (for all the persons singular/plural) and infinitive (without particle to) is translated by means of the Ukrainian particle б/би referring to present, past or future as in the following cases:

a) in the principle clause of the complex sentence, e.g.: It would be madness to start in management unless one had at least three plays (S. Maugham). – Було б просто божевіллям братись за організацію трупи, доки нема/не маєш хоча б трьох п’єс;

b) in the compound or simple sentences, e.g.: I have no time or I would go for a walk with you. – У мене немає часу, а то я пішла б з тобою гуляти.

I said, and would have said more about this, only Lefty cut me short. – Я сказала, і сказала б більше про це, але Лефті перервав мене.

1. Identify the meanings of the Subjunctive mood forms in the following sentences and translate them into Ukrainian.

1. I wish I knew what made you engage upon these studies. I should have thought your medical profession protected you from any tenderness towards superstition. 2. I’m most grateful for your advice. I very much wish I could accept it. It would make things easier for me. 3. I was afraid lest my aunt should be displeased with me. 4. On the way across the Park he, who knew more about it than most men, had been gloomy over the military future. Now he spoke as though his daughter had really been the problem on his mind. He spoke exactly as a Victorian parent might have spoken, as though all the future were predictable and secure except for his daughter’s marriage, and the well-being of his grandchildren. 5. Charles added this lest he should seem to be talking the whole thing far too seriously. 6. I’ve always lived for my husband and my family, nothing else. No outside interests, no hobbies, really. So that now, if I were to make some display of how I am feeling I wouldn’t be at all typical of me, would it? 7. “I hate the whole house”, continued Miss Sharp in a fury. “I hope I may never set eyes on it again. I wish it were in the bottom of the Thames, I do; and if Miss Pinkerton were there, I couldn’t pick her out that I wouldn’t. Oh, how I should like to see her floating in the water, turban and all, with her train streaming after her, and her nose like the beak of a wherry”. 8. If it had not been for his encouragement in the beginning, it was possible that I would not have had the desire and determination to go through the early years of apprenticeship that had been necessary before I could become a writer. 9. He has been an abnormally brave fighting officer in both wars, and had commanded a division in the second. That had been his ceiling. If he had been even reasonably capable, the military in the clubs used to say, he couldn’t have helped but go right to the top, since it was hard for a man to be better connected. 10. Should the works be finished sooner than planned, there would be always someone to pay you right away. 11. The situation would have worsened had it not been for the timely assistance. 12. If you were constantly being told off for doing the wrong thing, you would perhaps form the thought “I can’t do anything right”, and you may constantly overreact if your adult partner is always criticizing your behaviour. 13. I would have gone to her for shelter, but for her humble station, which made me fear that I might bring some trouble on her. 14. The end of her concert brought a tremendous reception from the audience. She returned for one encore but had the audience got their way she would have sung all night. 15. This could provide additional runway capacity beyond Terminal 5’s passenger capacity. 16. Britain’s argument that its nuclear weapons contribute to NATO’s strategic deterrent would be more credible if there were a credible strategic adversary on the European scene. 17. Happy they could have been, if they could have dismissed me at a month’s warning too.