There is only one set of endings in the Conditional, regardless if the verb is an -Ar or -Ir or -Er.
Yo |
Tú |
Él, ella, usted |
Nosotros |
Vosotros |
Ellos, ellas, Uds. |
| ía | ías | ía | íamos | íais | ían |
We make the Conditional by adding one of the above endings to the Infinitive itself - do not remove the last two letters as we have in the past! (We don't remove the endings for the Future Tense either)
For example:
| Preferiría comer a las ocho. | I would prefer to eat at eight o'clock. |
| Cenaríamos en el restaurante Los Cubanos en San José. | We would eat at Los Cubanos Restaurant. |
Of course there are a bunch of Irregulars in the Conditional and they follow the same pattern (and are the same verbs!) as the irregulars in the Future Tense. Their Infinitive form shortens:
Irregular roots |
Yo |
Tú |
Él, ella, usted |
Nosotros |
Vosotros |
Ellos, ellas, Uds. |
| Decir: dir- | diría | dirías | diría | diríamos | diríais | dirían |
| Tener: tendr- | tendría | tendrías | tendría | tendríamos | tendríais | tendrían |
| Poner: pondr- | pondría | pondrías | pondría | pondríamos | pondríais | pondrían |
| Poder: podr- | podría | podrías | podría | podríamos | podríais | podrían |
| Salir: saldr- | saldría | saldrías | saldría | saldríamos | saldríais | saldrían |
| Hacer: Har- | haría | harías | haría | haríamos | haríais | harían |
| Haber: Habr- | habría | habrías | habría | habríamos | habríais | habrían |
| Venir: Vendr- | vendría | vendrías | vendría | vendríamos | vendríais | vendrían |
| Me gustaría vivir en California. | I would like to live in California. |
| Irías a la playa si vivieras en Miami. | You would go to the beach if you lived in Miami. |
| ¡Haría un salto de 'bungee' de cualquier puente! | He would bungee jump from any bridge! |
We also use it to insist politely or make polite requests:
| ¿Firmaría usted el cheque, por favor? | Would you sign the check, please? |
| ¿Sabría usted el nombre de esa mujer? | Would you happen to know the name of that woman? |
Like the Future tense, we can use the Conditional to express conjecture, but this time it is about something in the past:
| ¿A qué hora sería cuando llegó? | I wonder what time it was when he arrived? [I wonder what time it would have been?] |
| ¿Miraría "Top Chef" la semana pasada? | I wonder if he watched Top Chef last week? [Would he have watched Top Chef?] |
We often find the Conditional used in conjunction with the Past
(Imperfect) Subjunctive mood in If-Then statements. An "If...Then"
statement refers to what might have happened (but didn't) if only
something else were true or were to have happened (but
didn't.)
For example:
| Iríamos a la playa | si viviéramos en Miami |
Conditional |
Past Imperfect Subjunctive |
| We would go to the beach | if we were to live in Miami. |
It doesn't matter whether the Conditional or the Past (Imperfect) Subjunctive clause comes first:
| Si ganara un millón de dólares, | (ENTONCES) viajaría. |
| If I were to have won a million dollars, | (THEN) I would travel. |
| Viajaría | si ganara un millón de dólares. |
| I would travel | if I were to have won a million dollars. |
The Past Imperfect subjunctive always comes after the word Si (If).
The Conditional occurs in the "Then" part of the sentence.