
The conditional tense in Spanish
expresses what you would do or what would happen
under certain circumstances.
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8.1-1

The conditional tense is formed much like the
future tense. The endings are the same for all
verbs, both regular and irregular. For regular
verbs, you simply add the appropriate
endings to the infinitive. ¡Atención! All forms
of the conditional have an accent mark.
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8.1-2

For irregular verbs, add the conditional
endings to the irregular stems.
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8.1-3

While in English the conditional is a
compound verb form made up of the auxiliary
verb would and a main verb, in Spanish it is a
simple verb form that consists of one word.
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8.1-4

The conditional is commonly used to make
polite requests.
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8.1-5

In Spanish, as in English, the conditional
expresses the future in relation to a past
action or state of being. In other words, the
future indicates what will happen whereas the
conditional indicates what would happen.
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8.1-6

The English would is often used with a verb to express
the conditional, but it can also mean used to, in the
sense of past habitual action. To express past habitual
actions, Spanish uses the imperfect, not the conditional.
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8.1-7
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8.1-8

The conditional of deber, like the present
indicative, translates as should.
– No deberías quemar la comida.
• You should not burn the food.
– Deberían encender el horno ahora.
• They should turn on the oven now.
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8.1-9
Indica la forma apropiada del condicional de los verbos.
1.
escucharía, leería, esculpiría (escuchar, leer, esculpir)
Yo ____________________________
2.
Tú ____________________________ (apreciar, comprender, compartir)
3.
Marcos ____________________________ (poner, venir, querer)
4.
Nosotras ____________________________ (ser, saber, ir)
5.
Ustedes ____________________________ (presentar, deber, aplaudir)
6.
Ella ____________________________ (salir, poder, hacer)
7.
Yo ____________________________ (tener, tocar, aburrirse)
8.
Tú ____________________________ (decir, ver, publicar)
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8.1-10

The conditional perfect
– Is formed with the auxiliary verb haber + past
participle
– Yo
habría
asado
– Tú
habrías
metido
– Ud., él, ella
habría
medido
– Nosotros/as
habríamos
pelado
– Vosotros/as
habríais
adelgazado
– Uds., ellos, ellas
habrían
hervido
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8.1-11

The conditional perfect
– Is used to express an action that would or should
have occurred but did not
• Habría congelado la sopa, pero mis hijos ya se
la habían comido.
– I would have frozen the soup, but my children had
already eaten it.
– The conditional perfect is also used to express
probability or conjecture
• Amelia habría asistido a una escuela culinaria
antes de hacerse famosa.
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8.1-12