The conditional tense
Type the missing word in each sentence. You hear each sentence read by a native voice.
Tomás sabía que María no lo (defraudar).
Tomás knew María wouldn't let him down.
The rule
It works like "would" in English. You need it for polite requests (me gustaría, podrías), hypothetical situations (si tuviera dinero, viajaría), and reporting what someone said would happen (dijo que vendría). It shares its irregular stems with the future tense, so if you know one, you know the other.
The pattern
Add the conditional endings to the full infinitive. All three verb groups use the same endings.
| Subject | hablar | comer | vivir |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | hablaría | comería | viviría |
| tú | hablarías | comerías | vivirías |
| él, ella, usted | hablaría | comería | viviría |
| nosotros/as | hablaríamos | comeríamos | viviríamos |
| vosotros/as (Spain) | hablaríais | comeríais | viviríais |
| ellos, ellas, ustedes | hablarían | comerían | vivirían |
The irregular stems are the same as the future tense: tener becomes tendría, salir becomes saldría, hacer becomes haría, decir becomes diría, poder becomes podría, venir becomes vendría, poner becomes pondría, querer becomes querría, saber becomes sabría.
Use the conditional for hypothetical results, polite requests, and softened advice. It also appears after a past-tense reporting verb: dijo que vendría.
For unreal conditions, pair si + past subjunctive with the conditional: si tuviera dinero, viajaría. The past subjunctive (tuviera) marks the condition as imagined or unlikely.
Examples
- Me gustaría un café.I would like a coffee.
- ¿Podrías repetir?Could you repeat that?
- Yo no haría eso.I would not do that.
- Deberías estudiar más.You should study more.
- Dijo que vendría mañana.He said he would come tomorrow.
- Si tuviera dinero, viajaría más.If I had money, I would travel more.
- Nosotros saldríamos temprano.We would leave early.
Watch out
- Podería ayudarme. Podría ayudarme.Poder uses the irregular stem podr-, not poder-.
- Si tengo dinero, viajaría. Si tuviera dinero, viajaría.Unreal conditions use si + past subjunctive, not si + present.
- Si tendría dinero, viajaría. Si tuviera dinero, viajaría.Never put the conditional after si in this pattern. The conditional goes in the result clause.
- Yo hacía eso (meaning you would do it). Yo haría eso.Hacía means "I used to do" or "I was doing." Haría means "I would do."