быbefore or after verb

[John Dunn]

In some informal varieties of Russian you can have your cake and eat it by placing бы [by] both after the first stressed word and after the verb: Я бы купил бы ... [Ja by kupil by].  To my non-native speaker's ear this repeated бы might be interpreted either as stressing the conditionality of the action or as an attempt to drag the sentence out and by so temporising gain time to think of an excuse.

John Dunn.   

______________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Mark Kingdom [k2kingdom at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: 15 September 2010 17:19
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: [SEELANGS] бы before or after verb

Hi all,

I wrote the following sentence to a Russian friend of mine:

Я купил бы эту вещь, но у меня нет денег.

She replied, (quoting) "...using бы after the verb is lazy, as if you are
giving yourself time to think of an excuse."

She says it is better to use бы before the verb: Я бы купил эту вещь, но у
меня нет денег.

I was taught that you can say it either way. What *is* the difference in
placement? Do you agree with my friend's statement?

Thanks!

Mark

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