(no subject)

[kittydesade]

In Dialogue 2, Alyosha asks Nellie and Gary if they would have celebrated the New Year the same way had they been at home: Вы бы так встречали Новый год, если бы вы были у себя дома? The particle бы used in each of the clauses indicates that Alyosha is talking about a hypothetical situation, one he knows to be unreal.

The following examples show how real conditions and hypothetical situations are expressed in English and Russian.

If Nellie and Gary were in Russia last year, they probably celebrated the New Year at their friends' home.
Если Нелли и Гэри в прошлом году были в России, они, наверное, встречали Новый год у друзей.

If Nellie and Gary had been home last year, they probably would have celebrated the New Year at their parents'.
Если бы Нелли и Гэри в прошлом году были дома, они, наверное, встречали бы Новый год у родителей.

If Nellie and Gary are in Russia now, they're probably at their friends' home.
Если Нелли и Гэри сейчас в России, они, наверное, у друзей.

If Nellie and Gary were in Russia now, they would probably be at their friends' home.
Если бы Нелли и Гэри сейчас были в России, они, наверное, были бы у друзей.

If Nellie and Gary are in Russia next year, they'll probably spend the New Year at their friends' home.
Если Нелли и Гэри в будущем году будут в России, они, наверное, будут встречать Новый год у друзей.

If Nellie and Gary were going to be in Russia next year, they would probably spend the New Year at their friends' home.
Если бы Нелли и Гэри в будущем году были в России, они, наверное, встречали Новый год у друзей.

Russian hypothetical situations are expressed with the particle бы plus a verb int he past tense, no matter what tense you have in mind. Both clauses of the hypothetical statement must have the бы + past tense construction. Go by these two rules of thumb.

1. If you use бы without the past tense, you have made a mistake.
2. If you use only one бы in a sentence, you have probably made a mistake. Nearly all бы constructions occur in hypothetical statements with two clauses, and both clauses must contain бы.


Oof. Steve Jobs, really? I go out for an hour and a half to do the weekly groceries and Steve Jobs dies? I leave you alone for five minutes, world...?!!?? No, it wasn't entirely unexpected, I guess, given cancer and the fact that he finally stepped down. He probably knew it was coming. Best wishes to his family.

Oof. Checked in, finally solved the webspace problem! I haven't moved all of my web pages over or, heh, even any web pages over, but that'll probably happen this weekend. Some of them. At the very least I'll get a placeholder page up. Anyway, that ought to solve the problem of my current hosting space being in sort of a limbo (yes, it was up, but I'm not entirely sure how long that would have lasted, it could have lasted for years more, it could have gone down next month) and so on and so forth. The name's the same, though. It even helped me come up with a pen name for if I ever get off my ass and start self-publishing, go me!

Oof. Oof oof oof. Too much crap to do, not enough time to do it. We'll see how much time in the day I get today, I'm still a little boggled that I'm making consistent progress on all my Big Bangs and my Nano planning and seriously, what the fuck is up with this one Urban fantasy 'verse that I have that just sort of keeps happening? Because it's the tidiest thing I've ever written, all of it, and I don't get it. I'm not complaining too much, but it's very bizarre to have my hindbrain sorting out everything before it ever gets to the conscious brain.