The Conditional

There is only one set of endings in the conditional, regardless if the verb is an -Ar or -Ir or -Er.

Yo	Tú	Él, ella, usted	Nosotros	Vosotros	Ellos, ellas, Uds.
ía	ías	ía	íamos	íais	ían

We make the Conditional by adding one of the above endings to the Infinitive itself, just as we did with the Future Tense.
For example:

Preferiría comer a las ocho.	I would prefer to eat at eight o'clock.
Deberíamos cenar en el restaurante Habana.	We should eat at Habana Restaurant.

Pretty easy, huh?

We use the Conditonal tense to express "would":

I would like to live in California.	Me gustaría vivir en California.
You would go to the beach if you lived in Miami.	Irías a la playa si vivieras en Miami.
He would bungee jump from any bridge!	¡Haría un salto de 'bungee' de cualquier puente!

We also use it to insist politely or make polite requests:

¿Firmaría usted el cheque, por favor?	Would you sign the check, please?
¿Sabría usted el nombre de esa mujer?	Would you happen to know the name of that woman?

Like the Future, we can express conjecture, but this time it is about something in the past:

¿A qué hora sería cuando llegó?	I wonder what time it was when he arrived
¿Miraría "Ally McBeal" la semana pasada?	I wonder if he watched "Ally McBeal" last week.

The Irregulars in the Conditional follow the same pattern (and are the same verbs!) as the irregulars in the Future Tense. Examples:

Irregulars: root	Yo	Tú	Él, ella, usted	Nosotros	Vosotros	Ellos, ellas, Uds.
Decir: dir-	diría	dirías	diría	diríamos	diríais	dirían
Tener: tendr-	tendría	tendrías	tendría	tendríamos	tendríais	tendrían
Poner: pondr-	pondría	pondrías	pondría	pondríamos	pondríais	pondrían
Poder: podr-	podría	podrías	podría	podríamos	podríais	podrían
Salir: saldr-	saldría	saldrías	saldría	saldríamos	saldríais	saldrían
Hacer: Har-	haría	harías	haría	haríamos	haríais	harían
Haber: Habr-	habría	habrías	habría	habríamos	habríais	habrían
Venir: Vendr-	vendría	vendrías	vendría	vendríamos	vendríais	vendrían

We often find the conditional used in conjunction with the Past Subjunctive in If-Then statements. An "If...Then" statement refers to what might have happened (but didn't) if only something else were true or happened (but didn't.)
We say "I would have done this if only this had happened (but didn't)."

We would go to the beach	if we lived (were to live) in Miami.
conditional	past subjunctive
Iríamos a la playa	si viviéramos en Miami

It doesn't matter whether the conditional or the subjunctive clause comes first:

If I won (were to win) a million dollars	(THEN) I would travel.
Si ganara un millón de dólares.	(ENTONCES) viajaría.
I would travel	if I won (were to win) a million dollars.
Viajaría	si ganara un millón de dólares.

The Past subjunctive always comes after the word "If". The conditional occurs in the "Then" part of the sentence.

Practice making the conditional with a mini-quiz!

Practice the conditional form on the Web!

More Practice with Sí clauses and the Imperfect subjunctive

Review the Imperfect (past) Subjunctive

Back to the Verbs page!