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Past tense after 'by'


Davey  13 | 388  
4 Jan 2008 /  #1
I always see sentences like 'by było lepiej' or something of the sort...should that be translated into present tense, like 'in order to be better' or something? Can someone explain this?=)
hello  22 | 891  
4 Jan 2008 /  #2
Yes, it relates to the future but is said now so "in order to be better [in the future]" makes most sense to me.
z_darius  14 | 3960  
4 Jan 2008 /  #3
There is actually a pretty close English equivalent:

'bybyło (past tense) lepiej' - "so that it were (past tense) better"
Bondi  4 | 142  
25 Jul 2008 /  #4
'by było (past tense) lepiej' - "so that it were (past tense) better"

Grammatically speaking, “...so that it were better” is conjunctive, not past tense.

Though, in contemporary spoken English, you would hear “so it would / it’d be better” or “so it was better”.

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