THE CONDITIONAL
Me gustaría vivir cerca del mar. “I would like to live near the sea.” The conditional is useful when you talk about wishes, give advice or imagine a different situation. It also makes requests sound less direct.
If you have learned the future tense, the forms will look familiar. The conditional uses the same stems, with a different set of endings.
How to form it
Add -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais or -ían to the whole infinitive. The endings are the same for -ar, -er and -ir verbs, and the í always carries a written accent. Hablar becomes hablaría; comer becomes comería; vivir becomes viviría.
| Person | hablar | comer | vivir |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | hablaría | comería | viviría |
| tú | hablarías | comerías | vivirías |
| él / ella / usted | hablaría | comería | viviría |
| nosotros / nosotras | hablaríamos | comeríamos | viviríamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | hablaríais | comeríais | viviríais |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | hablarían | comerían | vivirían |
The endings resemble the -er and -ir endings of the imperfect, but notice the stem: comía means “I was eating” or “I used to eat”; comería means “I would eat.” The conditional keeps the -er.
Wishes, requests and advice
Me gustaría aprender italiano.
I would like to learn Italian.
¿Podrías cerrar la ventana?
Could you close the window?
Deberías descansar un poco.
You should rest a little.
Me gustaría + infinitive is a common way to say what you would like to do. With poder and deber, the English translation is often “could” or “should.” You do not need an “if” clause to use any of these expressions.
The same irregular stems as the future
Some verbs change their stem. Their endings still follow the regular pattern: tener gives tendría, tendrías, tendría, tendríamos, tendríais, tendrían.
Compare tendré with tendría, or haré with haría: only the ending changes. Verbs that are irregular in other tenses may be regular here. Ir, for example, becomes iría.
Looking ahead from the past
Ana dijo que llamaría después de comer.
Ana said she would call after lunch.
Ana’s call comes after the moment when she spoke. The conditional expresses that relationship; it does not tell us whether she has made the call yet.
Be careful with English “would.” When it describes an old habit, Spanish usually uses the imperfect: “As children, we would play outside” becomes “De niños, jugábamos fuera.”
Imagining a different situation
Si tuviera más tiempo, aprendería italiano.
If I had more time, I would learn Italian.
Aprendería describes the imagined result. Tuviera is the imperfect subjunctive, used for the condition in this pattern. Use si tuviera, not si tendría. For now, concentrate on forming the result with the conditional; you can study the subjunctive separately.
Further reading: RAE: condicional simple and RAE: si clauses.