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As with the future tense, the forms of the conditional tense in Spanish hold few surprises. The endings are all regular, and there are only a few verbs that have irregular stems in the conditional. The endings (-ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íaias, -ían) are added to the infinitive form of the verb or, in the case of the few irregular verbs, to the future stem.
Examples:
-ar verbs
- hablaría
- hablarías
- hablaría
- hablaríamos
- hablaríais
- hablarían
-er verbs
- comería
- comerías
- comería
- comeríamos
- comeríais
- comerían
-ir verbs
- viviría
- vivirías
- viviría
- viviríamos
- viviríais
- vivirían
While most conditional tense occurrences
are regular, there are a few irregular conditional and future stems,
and they should be committed to memory. Notice how regular most of
them are in their irregularity. They are:
Verb / Irregular stem / Forms
- decir / dir- / diría, dirías, diría, etc.
- haber / habr- / habría, habrías, habría, etc.
- hacer / har- / haría, harías, haría, etc.
- poder / podr- / podría, podrías, podría, etc.
- poner / pondr- / pondría, pondrías, pondría, etc.
- querer / querr- / querría, querrías, querría, etc.
- saber / sabr- / sabría, sabrías, sabría, etc.
- salir / saldr- / saldría, saldrías, saldría, etc.
- tener / tendr- / tendría, tendrías, tendría, etc.
- venir / vendr- / vendría, vendrías, vendría, etc.
Primary use of the conditional
tense
Conditional vs. imperfect tense
Contrary-to-fact clause
The conditional of conjecture or
probability
Primary use of the conditional tense
In its most basic sense, the conditional tense is a cousin to the
future tense, not only in its forms but also in its meaning. Instead
of translating the English will, however, it translates the
words would or sometimes should. For example:
- Comería arroz pero no hay más. (I would eat rice, but there is none left.)
- Saldríamos para México mañana pero nos falta dinero. (We would leave for Mexico tomorrow, but we don't have the money.)
- Nos dijo que se pondría una corbata. (He told us that he would wear a tie.)
Conditional vs. imperfect tense
If a speaker says "would" in English to mean "used to," the
conditional tense is not used. Instead, the imperfect indicative is
used. For instance, When I was ten years old I would (used to)
play after school, They would (used to) go to Europe on vacation.
- Iba a la playa todos los veranos. (I would go to the beach each summer.)
- Comíamos pescado los viernes. (We would eat fish on Fridays.)
The conditional and conditional
perfect are used in conjunction the imperfect
subjunctive and the pluperfect
subjunctive to express conditionality with respect to the main
clause.
- Yo los acompañaría si tuviera tiempo. (I would go with them if I had time.)
- Habríamos hecho la tarea de otro modo si hubiéramos sabido las reglas. (We would have done the work differently if we had known the rules.)
The conditional of conjecture or probability
The conditional and conditional perfect tenses are frequently used
to express conjecture or probability in the past or past
perfect.
- ¿Qué hora sería? (What time do you think it was?)
- Serían las cinco. (It was probably five o'clock.)
- ¿Habrían terminado? (Do you suppose they
had finished?)
Related topics:
Conditional
perfect
"If" clauses
Imperfect indicative
Imperfect subjunctive
Future tense
Future perfect
tense
Verbs
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