"Анна бы лучше училась, если бы не опаздывала каждый день."

Translation: Anna would study better if she were not late every day.

[Rich.Smith]

Can I just give a quick shout out to the native Russian speakers who created these lessons? The "slow speed" of the pronunciations is the best I've heard in any lesson, for any language, on Duolingo -- ever.

Your enunciation is almost flawless, and it's a great help.

[Ksanalo]

Why " she WERE"??

[fof017]

This is the oft neglected English subjunctive. ''If she were'' is actually correct here but you'll usually hear most native speakers saying ''if she was'' instead - which is so widespread now that it should also probably be considered correct at this point.

[Albur_Godwin]

I can’t help thinking of this (the only scene from Joey that I know of, actually).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTQCbds8hsc&t=2m31s

[Mel533776]

The native Russian speakers have made it clear on the forum discussions for other exercises that "лучше учиться" refers to the results of study, so "study better" is a misleading translation. Better translations would be: "Anna would get better grades / marks / results ... " or "Anna would do better / do better in school ... " So I've flagged the exercise.

[MagnetcParticls]

Your учиться means "learn" while this lesson uses училась for "study".

[Ben656108]

Училась is a conjugated form of учиться

[Lynx387]

How does one determine where to place бы? I've seen it placed after the verb as well.

[Kundoo]

You can place "бы" almost anywhere you want. It can't be the first word of the clause and it can't be put after particles and prepositions, but other than that the choice of its placement is up to the speaker. It doesn't affect the meaning, only the flow of the sentence. It's hard to pinpoint what exactly works for a better flow in a given situation; it's mostly intuitive. We tend not to split "если бы" though, but it's not a hard rule.

[shani.gorm]

Anna would learn better if she were not late every day.

[laith678514]

If she (weren't)!!! Late every day . I know she takes is am i wrong?

[Scian4]

English has subjunctive too, it's just that few people use it. ("If I were a rich man" is a song from the musical "Fiddler on the Roof", which is completely grammatically correct.) "...if she wasn't late every day" ought to be accepted too, as it's common usage

[DavidMatsi]

Why is "Anna would've studied better if she were not late every day" incorrect?

[aceman357]

Because your translation is entirely past tense. The action of this sentence is still currently ongoing.

[F4yY9kZj]

I find it impossible to distinguish between 'она' and 'Анна' in the spoken sentences.

[Evangelos_Skar]

Καλά είστε πολύ βλάχοι. τι 'she were' ρε στούρνοι, βόδια ξοανα.

[YungOligarch]

so do I use past tense with бы every time?