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If I understand correctly, 'Что бы ты выбрал' can mean both 'what would you choose' in present conditional and 'what would you have chosen' in past conditional, depending on contexts.
But can the same thing be said about "надо было бы"? Can it be both 'if you had to write' in present conditional and 'if you'd had to write' in past conditional, depending on contexts?
The conditional mood in Russian is 'timeless'. Specific time references may be needed to resolve the ambiguity:
However, motion verbs do carry some temporal meaning:
There's no tense in the Russian Conditional mood. The time can be figured out from the context. Что бы вы делали, если бы вам надо было принимать важные решения каждый день? Моя работа этого требует. - Present. Что бы вы делали, если бы вам надо было принимать важные решения за других? А ведь я был моложе их всех. - Past. Though the category of Perfect (совершенный и несовершенный вид) is observed with the Conditional mood. Если бы я ходил на работу - that means if I went (had gone) to my work (regularly) Если бы я пришел на работу - that is if I came (had come) to work (today, by that time) Если бы я шел на работу и видел, что здание сносят, я бы вернулся домой. - If I were going to my work... (that is a process, hence it is Continuous).
