Spanish Grammar: The Conditional Mood

Spanish Grammar: The Conditional Mood

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Spanish Grammar: The Conditional Mood
la gramática española: el modo condicional

  • Actions happening in the conditional or uncertain future.
  • Conjugate verbs in order to attribute actions to someone/thing.

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You may have already learned the phrase “me gustaría” to express what you would like (to do, say, etc.)

Gustaría” is a conditional verb form, part of a verb system that allows you to talk about what you would do.

To form the conditional construction of regular verbs, you ADD conditional endings to the infinitive (you don’t drop the [-AR], [-ER], or [-IR]!).

Check out the following examples:

Conditional Mood – Verb Conjugation Endings and Examples
  ENDINGS HABLAR (to speak) VER (to see) VIVIR (to live)
yo [-ía] hablaría vería viviría
[-ías] hablarías verías vivirías
él/ella/usted [-ía] hablaría vería viviría
nosotros (as) [-íamos] hablaríamos veríamos viviríamos
vosotros (as) [-íais] hablaríais veríais viviríais
ellos/ellas/ustedes [-ían] hablarían verían vivirían

The conditional uses the same irregular stems as the future tense, just add the appropriate conditional endings.

decir : [dir-]
to say

haber : [habr-]
to have

hacer : [har-]
to do

poder : [podr-]
to be able to

poner : [pondr-]
to put/place

querer : [querr-]
to want

saber : [sabr-]
to know

salir : [saldr-]
to leave

tener : [tendr-]
to have (possess)

venir : [vendr-]
to come

The conditional mood is also used to express probability or to speculate about present conditions.

Ellos saldrían tarde.
They would leave late.

Adapt

¿Qué haría usted?
What would you do?

¿Dónde irían ellos?
Where would they go?

¿Quién tendría un lápiz?
Who would have a pencil?

¿Cómo lo sabrías?
How would you (familiar) know?

¿Cuándo comeríamos?
When would we eat?

¿Por qué él diría esto?
Why would he say that?

¿Cuántos estudiantes habrían?
How many students would there be?

¿Cuál sería mejor?
Which one would be best?

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