The Conditional Tense in Spanish is a great tense because it has only a handful of irregular verbs (which are mainly the rebels you will be used to from the other tenses). Another reason that I love it is that you only have to learn one set of endings for every verb in the Spanish dictionary… bonus! The only real drawback is that it’s not very clear when to use it based on it’s name.
We use the conditional tense to say what we would do based on certain conditions. Unlike the present or future tense, its use is not obvious from the name, but I find it useful to say something on the lines of…
On the condition that I had the money, I would donate to charity. Or…
On the condition that I had the time, I would help you.
Here’s how to form The Conditional Tense.
Remember this is used to talk about what you would do.
This is another of my favourite tenses because, again, it is pretty easy once you learn the new endings.
For the Conditional Tense, you don’t need to take anything off the infinitive. Hopefully, if you’ve already studied the Simple Future Tense, you’ll notice that the formation of the Conditional Tense is similar to how the Simple Future Tense works… You basically add the appropriate ending to the infinitive. Again, the bonus is that you only have to learn one set of endings because they are the same for ‘-AR’, ‘-ER’ and ‘-IR’ verbs:
Take a look at a common ‘-AR’ verb:
| Hablar | To speak |
| (yo) hablaría | I would speak |
| (tú) hablaría | You would speak |
| (él/ella/usted) hablaría | He/she/it would speak & you (polite) would speak |
| (nosotros/as) hablaríamos | We would speak |
| (vosotros/as) hablarías | All of you would speak |
| (ellos/ellas/ustedes) hablarían | They would speak & all of you (polite) would speak |
Now, take a look at a common ‘-ER’ verb:
| Comer | To eat |
| (yo) comería | I would eat |
| (tú) comerías | You would eat |
| (él/ella/usted) comería | He/she/it would eat & you (polite) would eat |
| (nosotros/as) comeríamos | We would eat |
| (vosotros/as) comerías | All of you would eat |
| (ellos/ellas/ustedes) comerían | They would eat & all of you (polite) would eat |
This time, take a look at a common ‘-IR’ verb:
| Vivir | To live |
| (yo) viviría | I would live |
| (tú) vivirías | You would live |
| (él/ella/usted) viviría | He/she/it would live & you (polite) would live |
| (nosotros/as) viviríamos | We would live |
| (vosotros/as) viviríais | All of you would live |
| (ellos/ellas/ustedes) vivrían | They would live & all of you (polite) would live |
For example:
(Yo) hablaría con tu hermano. (I would speak with your brother.)
(Tú) comerías todos los chocolates. (You would eat all the chocolates.)
(Ellos) vivirían en otro país. (They would live in another country.)
Don’t forget…
The pronouns ‘yo’, ‘tú’, ‘ellos’ etc are in brackets because they are optional in Spanish and are really only used for emphasis or to avoid confusion, for example between ‘él’ and ‘ella’. The ending is already doing the job of saying who we are talking about. You may find that ‘yo’ used a little more in this tense, because the verb ending for ‘yo’ is the same as the verb ending for ‘él’ and ‘ella’ (____ía).
This is one of my fave tenses, as you only have to learn one set of endings and it translates literally really well from English. However, there is a handful of irregulars to learn, so once you are feeling confident in forming the Conditional Tense with regular verbs, take a look at the Irregular Verbs in the Conditional Tense and set yourself a new challenge. There’s not many, so don’t be daunted, you’ll have them in no time!
An important note about ‘should, would, could’:
When we study the conditional tense, we often learn examples using ‘I should…’ and ‘I could…’ as well as ‘I would…’. This leads to the temptation to think that the conditional tense also automatically translates as ‘should…’ and ‘could…’.
This is not the case!
The basic translation for a conditional ending ‘ía‘ is ‘would‘. It is purely because we say ‘I should…’ and ‘I could…’ so much, that we start to think that these are also the basic translations for the conditional ending.
Have a look at how these examples actually translate:
| Our typical translation in English: | The actual meaning: |
| Ella debería estudiar más. (She should study more.) | Debería estudiar más. (She would ought to study more.) |
| Podríamos ayudarte. (We could help you.) | Podríamos ayudarte. (We would be able to help you.) |
As you can see, the true translation still contains ‘would‘. Therefore, try not to get caught out by thinking that the conditional ending of ‘ía‘ automatically translates as ‘would, could and should‘. It actually only truly translates as ‘would’.
‘Would‘ you like to have a go?
Now you’ve seen how to form the conditional tense in Spanish, with regular verbs, have a go at these interactive practice activities. It’s a really straight forward tense, so enjoy! Just try to remember that the conditional ending means ‘would‘…. If you actually want to say ‘I could’ you need ‘podría’ (I would be able to…) and for ‘I should’ you need ‘debería’ (I would ought to…). Happy practising!
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