THE CONDITIONAL
The conditional is used commonly in subordinate (dependent) clauses after main verbs of communication (ex: decir) and knowledge or belief (saber, creer) when the main verb is in one of the past tenses. Observe a similar correspondence of tenses in Spanish and English: present/future and past/conditional :
Javier dice que irá a la fiesta. (Javier says he will go to the party).
Javier dijo que iría a la fiesta. (Javier said he would go to the party).
Yo sé que me llamarán. (I know that they will call me).
Yo sabía que me llamarían. (I knew that they would call me).
The conditional is commonly used in the main clause of a sentence that has the imperfect subjunctive in the si clause ("if" clause) , that is, the subordinate or dependent clause. The conditional expressed here is called contrary-to-fact.
Si Javiera saliera de la fiesta, yo saldría con él.
(If Javier were to leave the party, I would leave with him).
Si él me llamara por una cita, aceptaría la invitación.
(If he were to call me for a date, I would accept the invitation).
Si yo ganara un millón de dólares, no sabría qué hacer con el dinero.
(If I were to win a million dollars, I would not know what to do with the money).
The conditional is also used to express probability or conjecture in past time. The verbs most commonly used to express probability with the conditional are estar, haber, ser, and tener:
Sería
la una . (It was probably one o’clock).Habría algunas dificultades. (There were probably some difficulties).
El chico tendría nueve años. (The boy was probably nine years old).
**The context of the sentence or paragraph will help you to determine where the verb in the conditional refers to the conditional itself or to probability in the past.
CONDITIONAL ENDINGS
| -ía | -íamos |
| -ías | -íais |
| -ía | -ían |
Vivir: viviría, vivirías, viviría, viviríamos, viviríais, vivirían
Comer: comería, comerías, comería, comeríamos, comeríais, comerían
Hablar: hablaría, hablarías, hablaría, hablaríamos, hablaríais, hablarían
Easy, right? Well, there’s a catch. Not all verbs are regular (as if you didn’t know this was coming). Lucky for you, the verbs which are irregular in the conditional are the same verbs (and stems) that are irregular in the future tense as well. Your irregular verbs and their forms in the conditional
are as follows:| Decir-to say or tell | dir- | diría, dirías, diría,. . . |
| Hacer- to do or make | har- | haría, harías, haría, . . . |
| Poder-to be able to | podr- | podría, podrías, podría, . . . |
| Poner- to put on, place | pondr- | pondría, pondrías, pondría, . . . |
| Querer-to want, like, love | querr- | querría, querrías, querría, . . . |
| Saber- to know | sabr- | sabría, sabrías, sabría, . . . |
| Salir- to leave, go out | saldr- | saldría, saldrías, saldría, . . . |
| Tener- to have | tendr- | tendría, tendrías, tendría, . . . |
| Valer- to be worth | valdr- | valdría, valdrías, valdría, . . . |
| Venir- to come | vendr- | vendría, vendrías, vendría, . . . |
Si yo fuera presidente de los estados unidos, cambiaría unas reglas.
Me gustaría ir de vacaciones lo tan pronto posible.
Asistiríamos a la clase, pero no nos interesa.
Compraríamos un coche nuevo, pero no tenemos ningún dinero.