Spanish Conditional Tense - el Condicional (Conjugation and Usage)

The conditional is one of the simplest, easiest Spanish verb forms. :) There is only one set of endings and most verbs - even those which are irregular in the present tense - use their infinitive as the root of the conjugation.

How do we form the conditional?

To form the conditional of -AR, -ER, and -IR verbs, add the following endings to the infinitive:

	Singular	Plural
1st person	yo     -ía	nosotros     -íamos
2nd person	tú     -ías	vosotros     -íais
3rd person	él ella     -ía           Ud.	ellos ellas     -ían Uds.

He would sing – El cantaría

I would eat – Yo comería

We would write – Nosotros escribiríamos

Irregular verbs in the conditional tense:

Some verbs have irregular conditional stems, but they still add the same endings as regular verbs.

Verb	Conditional stem	Similar verbs
poner	pondr-	-d- in place of the –e- or –i-: salir, tener, valer, venir
haber	habr-	-lose the infinitive vowel –e-: caber, poder, querer, saber
hacer	har-
oír	oir-	Lose the accent: reir, sonreir
decir	dir-

Usage

We use the conditional tense for actions that are not guaranteed to occur, in hypotheses, or statements about what would happen, that’s why it is translated as would/could in English.

Uses:

1. Talking about expectations: Past tense + conditional.
Often with common expressions such as pensar que, creer que, prometer que...

Examples: Marta dijo que vendría - Marta said she would come.
Yo pensaba que viajaríamos hoy - I thought we would travel today.

2. Probability in the past

Examples: Serían las diez - It was probably ten o'clock.
El vendría a eso de las 2 de la mañana – He would come at about two in the morning.

3. Polite requests, suggestions or refusals

Examples: ¿Podría ayudarme?- Could you help me?
Querríamos dos refrescos por favor - We would like two drinks please.
Lo siento pero no le aceptaría la invitación – I am sorry but I couldn’t accept the invitation

4. Si (if, then) clauses- conditional is also used in the second type of if clauses to express unlikely situations: (imperfect subjunctive + conditional)

Example: Si fueras con nosotros, podrías visitar a tu abuela - If you went with us, you could visit your grandmother.

Conditional Tense Quiz

Complete each sentence with the correct conditional form of the verb in parentheses