Conditional Tense: Spanish Grammar Made Easy

What is the Conditional Tense in Spanish?

The conditional tense in Spanish is a verb form used to express hypothetical situations, polite requests, or actions that would happen under certain conditions. Think of it as the “would” tense in English. For example, “I would go” translates to “Yo iría.” It’s like having a crystal ball, allowing you to talk about what could happen, what you wish would happen, or what you would do if things were different.

How to Form the Conditional Tense in Spanish

Conditional Tense with Regular Verbs in Spanish

In Spanish, forming the conditional tense is straightforward. For regular verbs, simply add the conditional endings (-ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían) to the infinitive form of the verb. So, “hablar” (to speak) becomes “hablaría” (I would speak). The Conditional Tense in Spanish has the same future tense root.

Look at the examples of regular verbs in the Spanish conditional tense in the table below and notice that in English we have only one conjugation for the verb conditional.

Examples:

• Yo saldría contigo todos los días: I would go out with you every day.
• Tú tendrías que salir usando tu carro: You’d have to go out by using your car.
• Ella pondría ejemplos perfectos del futuro: She would go set perfect examples about the future.
• Nosotros vendríamos todo el tiempo: We would come all the time.
• Ellos valdrían mucho por su condición: They would be worth it a lot because of their condition.

Verbs that lose one vowel

Such as Caber, Haber, Poder, Saber.

Examples:

• Yo podría comer con él todo el día: I could eat with him all day.
• Tú cabrías pero estás tenso. – You would fit but you’re tense.
• Él sabría qué hacer. – He would know what to do.
• Nosotros habríamos sido como tú. – We could have been like you.
• Ella querría otro helado, por favor. – She would like another ice cream, please.

3. Conditional Tense in Spanish with Reflexive Verbs

The conditional is used with reflexive verbs as well, to express actions performed on the same subject/object. Just as any other verb, form the conditional tense with the infinitive and the endings.

The only extra word, in this case, would be the reflexive pronoun (me, te ,se , nos ,os, se). They always go before the verb.

Example:

• Yo me mudaría a una casa más grande. – I would move to a bigger house.
• Me comería la torta entera si fuera hecha de chocolate. – I would eat the whole cake if it were made of chocolate.
• Él se expresaría mejor sobre su condición con un ejemplo. – He would express in a better way about his condition with an example.
• Nosotros nos escaparíamos usando un artefacto que venga del futuro. – We would escape by using a device coming from the future.
• Vosotros os marcharíais como si nada pasó. – You would leave as if nothing happened.
• Ellos se convertirían en ejemplos perfectos de la condición humana. –  They would become perfect examples of the human condition.

4. Verbs in the conditional tense with an irregular root

Something else to take into account is the change in the infinitive for this form.

5 Main Uses Of The Conditional Tense In Spanish

Let’s take a closer look at how the Spanish conditional tense is used, step by step.

By now, you should be familiar with how to conjugate the simple conditional in Spanish, which corresponds to “would” + an infinitive in English. However, other English words and expressions also translate into the conditional tense in Spanish.

Depending on the speaker’s intent, the conditional can be translated as “could,” “should,” or even “probably.”

Below are some of the most common scenarios where you’d use the conditional tense in Spanish:

1. Wishes

2. Suggestions

3. Requests

4. Excuses

5. Hypothetical situations

Another way to use the conditional tense in Spanish is to talk about situations that are not real at the moment. For these situations, we’re going to be using Si clauses in Spanish. (if clauses)

An “if clause” or Si clause in Spanish is a cropped sentence that implies a condition.

In the Spanish conditional tense, it’s possible to invert the sentence if you would like to express your ideas differently.

Notice that the first verb we use here is nothing like the rest in this article. In each example, the imperfect subjunctive is present.

The Spanish Conditional Compound Tense

The conjugation on this one is very simple as it’s a combination of verbs we already know. Remember that compound tenses use auxiliary verbs.

In this case, you know haber is the auxiliary verb in Spanish. For the conditional compound, it will be in the simple conditional tense.

The second component is the past participle which is going to be used with every personal pronoun without any changes given that we are already conjugating haber.

Past participle in Spanish (regular verbs)

There are three different types of regular verbs in Spanish grammar that we group according to their endings.

Let’s transform those into past participles:

• For verbs that end in -ar, we change the ending for -ado.
• For the verbs with -er and -ir endings, we change the endings for -ido.

Past participle in Spanish (irregular verbs)

The conjugation was pretty straightforward up to this point and now there’s a set of irregular verbs we need to use!

But, there’s nothing to worry about. Many of these irregular verbs are very common, meaning Spanish speakers use them a lot and you’ll be listening to them quite often.

Are there any other irregular verbs? Of course! However, once you’re familiarized with the ones on the previous list, you’d have learned many more.

How does it work? Easy! Verbs finishing in poner (already a verb), will have the same conjugation at the end. That is:

Componer, imponer, suponer, oponer, reponer, exponer, proponer and so on.

Compuesto, Impuesto, supuesto, opuesto, repuesto, expuesto, propuesto and so on.

And let’s not forget about the exceptions. There are three verbs in Spanish with two possible participles (regular and irregular).

Depending on the region, people will use one or the other. To be safe, use the irregular on every occasion.

Using the Conditional Compound

The Spanish Conditional Compound talks about an action that was supposed to happen in the past yet another action got in the way. It’s basically, giving excuses about something in the past.

Example:

• Habría llamado a tu casa pero me robaron el teléfono. – I would have called to your house but they stole my phone.
• Habríamos hecho algo pero no tuvimos oportunidad. – We would have done something but we didn’t have the chance.
• Habrías podido llegar temprano pero te levantaste muy tarde. – You would have been able to arrive early but you got up too late.

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The Spanish conditional tense is ideal for crafting excuses, and now you have examples for nearly every situation. Just like with other tenses, regular verbs are the ones you’ll use most frequently.

The good news is that the conditional tense is straightforward to conjugate, with only a few irregular verbs to watch out for, such as poder (to be able to). With these in mind, you’re ready to start using the conditional tense like a pro!

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