In Spanish, we use the conditional to say what would happen if there were no other circumstances. It’s like in English! The only difference is that in Spanish, we use just one verb (we must conjugate it, though), but in English, we add “would” before the verb:
Yo iría pero no tengo tiempo.
I would go but I don’t have time.
Ellos comerían con nosotros pero están a dieta.
They would eat with us but they are on a diet.
Ella viajaría a España si tuviera tiempo.
She would travel to Spain if I had the time.
We can also use the conditional with a few verbs to show politeness:
¿Podrías ayudarme?
Could you help me?
¿Te gustaría ir al cine conmigo, Juana?
Would you like to go to the movies with me, Juana?
This is a piece of cake! As you can tell, we mostly use it the same way in English and Spanish. Of course, there are a few exceptions, but let’s not sweat the small stuff for now.
CONJUGATION
To form the simple conditional, you just need to add the personal endings to the whole infinitive. Interestingly, the endings are exactly the same as those used for the imperfect past in er and ir verbs.
Let’s check out how it works with the verb hablar. I’ve got Gael from Spain to read it out loud for you. The endings are the same for ar, er and ir verbs:
| PERSON | CONJUGATION |
|---|---|
| yo | hablaría |
| tú | hablarías |
| usted | hablaría |
| él ella | hablaría |
| nosotros nosotras | hablaríamos |
| ustedes | hablarían |
| ellos ellas | hablarían |
| vos | hablarías |
| vosotros vosotras | hablaríais |
And now, let’s play this game. Just click Start!
A post with irregular verbs, like poder, will come soon!
