The Conditional in Spanish The present conditional describes things that would, could, or should happen. You often find it used with ‘if clauses’ with the imperfect subjunctive, e.g., jugaría si tuviera tiempo – I would play if I had time. In Spanish, the verb ending conveys the idea that the action would take place, e.g., jugaría – I would play. For regular verbs, add the conditional ending to the end of the infinitive. There is one set of endings for all verbs. Present Conditional Endings: yo tú él/ella/usted nosotros/as vosotros/as ellos/as ustedes -ía -ías -ía -íamos -íais -ían Regular Verbs (-ar, -er, -ir): jugaría jugarías jugaría jugaríamos jugaríais jugarían comería comerías comería comeríamos comeríais comerían escribiría escribirías escribiría escribiríamos escribiríais escribirían Irregular Verbs If a verb is irregular in the conditional, it has an irregular stem and you add the conditional endings to this instead of the infinitive. Here are some useful irregular conditional stems: decir tener hacer salir querer poder dirtendrharsaldrquerrpodr- tendría tendrías tendría tendríamos tendríais tendrían haría harías haría haríamos haríais harían querría querrías querría querríamos querríais querrían saldría saldrías saldría saldríamos saldríais saldrían podría podrías podría podríamos podríais podrían diría dirías diría diríamos diríais dirían Practice: Follow the rule above to put these three regular verbs into the conditional. to talk I would talk You (s) would talk He/she would talk We would talk You (pl) would talk They would talk hablar to drink I would drink You (s) would drink He/she would drink We would drink You (pl) would drink They would drink beber to go ir I would go You (s) would go He/she would go We would go You (pl) would go They would go Translate into Spanish – remember to check if the verb has an irregular stem in the conditional. I would play football. You (s) would eat a pizza. We should listen. She should go there. You (pl) could travel. They (f) would go. I would go swimming. *Careful – which verb do we use to talk about age in Spanish? **It’s a reflexive verb so don’t forget the reflexive pronoun. †Think carefully about whether to use ‘ser’ or ‘estar’ here. I would be* eighteen. She could play. You (s) would like to cry. We would write a book. They would shower.** He would be† tired. We would drink a coffee.
