The Spanish Conditional tense expresses the action of the verb as “possible”. Thus, it is generally used to communicate a hypothetical situation or make requests in polite manner, amongst other things.
The Spanish Conditional verb tense conjugation is pretty easy to learn because it only has two forms:
You may apply this verb tense conjugation with the following purposes:
To ask for guidance or provide suggestions:
Deberías llamar a tu madre. -> You should call your mother.
Marcos tendría que hablar con el padre de la novia antes de pedir su mano. -> Marcos would have to speak to the father of the bride before asking for her hand.
¿Qué zapatos crees que le combinarían mejor a mi vestido? -> What shoes do you think would fit my dress better?
Le irían mejor los zapatos negros. -> The black shoes would go better.
Request things in a polite manner:
¿Podría darme la hora por favor? -> Could you please give me the time?
¿Sería tan amable de indicarme dónde está el baño? -> Would you be so kind to tell me where the bathroom is?
¿Le importaría si me siento junto a la ventana? -> Would you mind if I sit by the window?
Le agradecería inmensamente si pudiera tener mi pedido listo para hoy mismo. -> I would be immensely grateful if you could have my order ready for today.
¿Querrías ser mi pareja en el baile de graduación? -> Would you like to be my partner for the school prom?
To precise doubt or possibility in the past.
¿A qué hora llegaron ayer en la noche? Llegaríamos alrededor de las 2:00am. -> At what time did you arrive yesterday night? We arrived around 2:00am.
Me dijiste que llegarías no más tarde de la media noche. -> You told me you wouldn’t be later than midnight.
Pensamos que los chicos estarían estudiando para su examen pero en realidad se fueron de fiesta. -> We thought the guys would be studying for their exam but in fact they went out partying.
¿Cuántos años tendrías cuando entraste a la escuela naval? -> How old you were when you enrolled the naval academy?
To talk about a probable future:
El joven dijo que podría entregar el paquete la siguiente semana. -> The guy said that he could deliver the package next week.
My madre querría ver el espectáculo de danza de su nieta. -> My mother could want to see her granddaughter’s dance show.
Según el pronóstico del tiempo, esta tarde podría llover. -> According to the weather forecast, this afternoon could rain.
As you can see, this last set of examples is translated to English as ‘could’.
The conjugation for regular verbs in the Simple Conditional tense is formed with the root of the infinitive verb and the following endings: –ía, –ías, –íamos, –íais, and –ían.
| ROOT | ENDING |
| Infinitive | -ía |
| -ías | |
| -ía | |
| -ía | |
| -íamos | |
| -íais | |
| -ían | |
| -ían |
Look at the table below, which exemplifies the verb ‘hablar’ (to talk).
| PRONOUN | INFINITIVE ROOT VERB | ENDING | HABLAR (TO TALK) |
| Yo | Hablar | ía | Hablaría |
| Tú/vos | Hablar | ías | Hablarías |
| Usted | Hablar | ía | Hablaría |
| Él/ella | Hablar | ía | Hablaría |
| Nosotros/nosotras | Hablar | íamos | Hablaríamos |
| Vosotros/vosotras | Hablar | íais | Hablaríais |
| Ustedes | Hablar | ían | Hablarían |
| Ellos/ellas | Hablar | ían | Hablarían |
The suffixes are always the same; regardless whether they are regular or irregular verbs.
| REGULAR VERBS | ||||
| PRONOUN | AMAR (TO LOVE) | CORRER (TO RUN) | MORIR (TO DIE) | |
| Yo | Amaría | Correría | Moriría | |
| Tú/vos | Amarías | Correrías | Morirías | |
| Usted | Amaría | Correría | Moriría | |
| Él/ella | Amaría | Correría | Moriría | |
| Nosotros/nosotras | Amaríamos | Correríamos | Moriríamos | |
| Vosotros/vosotras | Amaríais | Correríais | Moriríais | |
| Ustedes | Amarían | Correrían | Morirían | |
| Ellos/ellas | Amarían | Correrían | Morirían | |
| IRREGULAR VERBS | ||||
| PRONOUN | ATRAVESAR (TO CROSS) | TENER (TO HAVE) | DECIR (TO SAY) | |
| Yo | Atravesaría | Tendría | Diría | |
| Tú/vos | Atravesarías | Tendrías | Dirías | |
| Usted | Atravesaría | Tendría | Diría | |
| Él/ella | Atravesaría | Tendría | Diría | |
| Nosotros/nosotras | Atravesaríamos | Tendríamos | Diríamos | |
| Vosotros/vosotras | Atravesaríais | Tendríais | Diríais | |
| Ustedes | Atravesarían | Tendrían | Dirían | |
| Ellos/ellas | Atravesarían | Tendrían | Dirían |
The Conditional tense can also take a compound form known as Condicional Compuesto.
You might find it comparable to the Conditional Perfect tense in English, which looks like this:
The Spanish Perfect Conditional is formed with an auxiliary verb, in this case ‘haber’, one of the Castilian verbs that mean ‘to be’, conjugated in the Simple Conditional tense, and the Participle of the main verb.
HABRÍA + PARTICIPLE
(habría) + (amado)
The following chart shows how to conjugate ‘haber’ in simple conditional with all the pronouns.
| PRONOUN | HABER (TO BE) SIMPLE CONDITIONAL |
| Yo | Habría |
| Tú/vos | Habrías |
| Usted | Habría |
| Él/ella | Habría |
| Nosotros/nosotras | Habríamos |
| Vosotros/vosotras | Habríais |
| Ustedes | Habrían |
| Ellos/ellas | Habrían |
Next, the participle is formed by adding the suffixes –ado or –ido to the root verb.
Examples:
Some verbs have irregular participles, like the verb ‘to write’, which changes from ‘escribir’ to ‘escrito’, and the verb ‘to say’, which changes from ‘decir’ to ‘dicho’.
You may have to memorize the full list of Spanish verbs, but be confident that when you see a verb with the –do ending it is likely to be a participle you came across with!
Some of the purposes of the Conditional Perfect include:
Example:
Like in English, the Spanish Conditional tenses are also used in the main clause of a conditional sentence; in which case ‘if’ is substituted for ‘si’ at the beginning.
Example:
Notice how the first part of the sentence is conjugated in the Imperfect Subjunctive tense: ‘pudiera’, whilst the second part in the Simple Conditional tense.
Now, let’s look at examples of conditional sentences using the Conditional Perfect tense.
Example:
Notice how the first clause too shows the verb ‘haber’ conjugated in the Imperfect Subjunctive tense (hubiera) and the second clause in Conditional Perefect (habría). Remember to always apply the rule of concordance so the verbs match the right person.
For the Imperfect Subjunctive clause the formula looks like this:
HUBIERA + PAST PARTICIPLE
You will see from the chart below that there are two correct options for the conjugation of ‘haber’ in the Spanish Imperfect Subjunctive tense. The first one is more common and the second is considered more educated so it can be found in printed news media and literature.
| PRONOUN | HABER (TO BE) The two forms are correct | |
| Yo | Hubiera | Hubiese |
| Tú/vos | Hubieras | Hubieses |
| Usted | Hubiera | Hubiese |
| Él/ella | Hubiera | Hubiese |
| Nosotros/nosotras | Hubiéramos | Hubiésemos |
| Vosotros/vosotras | Hubierais | Hubieseis |
| Ustedes | Hubieran | Hubiesen |
| Ellos/ellas | Hubieran | Hubiesen |
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