Conditional

Let’s look at what the conditional means in English: I would leave. “Would” is ALWAYS in the translation. This isn’t considered a tense in English. That can make it a little tricky.

Now, since the imperfect can also be translated with “would,” don’t get the imperfect and the conditional mixed up: I would play outside every day when I was little. (imperfect) I would play outside today if I could. (conditional) With the conditional, there’s usually a stated or implied “if”: I wouldn’t eat that chocolate (if I were you). I would buy that car (if I had enough money).

Forming the Conditional Like the future, the conditional uses the infinitive as its stem. All the stems that are irregular in the future are also irregular in the conditional: verbs where a d verbs where the e verbs where two replaces the i or e disappears letters disappear salir saldr- poder podr- decir dir- venir vendr- querer querr- hacer har- poner pondr- saber sabr- tener tendr- haber habr- Here are the endings for the conditional: hablaría hablaríamos hablarías hablaríais hablaría hablarían Note that these endings are exactly the same as the –er/-ir endings for the imperfect: comía (imperfect) comería (conditional)

One more little thing: Remember the future of probability? Juan estará aquí: Juan will be here. Juan is probably here. Well, there’s also the conditional of probability. Juan estaría aquí: Juan was probably here. So the conditional, depending on context, can mean WOULD or WAS PROBABLY. A good example of the conditional of probability is if Juan didn’t show up for your party, and you say, “Juan trabajaría,” meaning, “Juan was probably working.”

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