Conditional regular and irregular forms and

uses
Overview

The conditional (el condicional) tense in Spanish is used to express what

"would" happen in the future. It is more of a possibility, or hypothetical
situation, than the future tense. The formation is very similar to that of
the simple future tense in that one set of endings is added to the
infinitive to create a new tense and the irregular stems are the same as
those in the future tense.

 Compraría esa camisa. (I would buy that shirt.)

 Sacaría la basura por ti. (He would take out the trash for
you.)
 Si fuera rico, me gustaría viajar por todo el mundo. (If I were
rich, I would travel all over the world.)

Regular Conditional Forms

To form the conditional tense, simply add the correct ending to the
infinitive of the verb. All verb conjugations (-AR, -ER, and -ER) have
the same endings for the conditional tense:

Conditional Endings:

ía, ías, ía, íamos, íais, ían

Conjugation Examples

  viajar conocer escribir

yo viajaría conocería escribiría
tú viajarías conocerías escribirías
usted, él, ella viajaría conocería escribiría
nosotros viajaríamos conoceríamos escribiríamos
vosotros viajaríais conoceríais escribiríais
ustedes, ellos, ellas viajarían conocerían escribirían

Note that the endings for the conditional tense are the same as those for
the -er and -ir forms of the imperfect tense. Remember the conditional
adds the endings to the infinitive and the imperfect adds them to the
stem.

 Conditional - Escribiría unas cartas. (I would write some

letters.)
 Imperfect - Escribía unas cartas. (I wrote some letters.)

Irregular Conditional Forms

The conditional has relatively few irregular verbs which fall into 3
distinct categories: 1. those that replace the infinitive ending vowel with
a d, 2. those that simple remove the infinitive ending vowel, and 3. those
that are plain irregular.

1. Replace infinitive ending vowel with d

Only -ER and -IR verbs fall into this category. To form the stem, simply
replace the e or i from the infinitive ending with the a d, then add the
conditional endings.

Conjugation Example:

tener (to have) 

tendría tendríamos
tendrías tendríais
tendría tendrían

Other Verbs like Tener

Infinitive Conditional Stem

poner pondr-
valer valdr-
salir saldr-
venir vendr-

 Ud. tendría una casa nueva. (You would have a new

house.)
 Valdría mil dolares. (It would be worth $1,000.)

2. Remove the infinitive vowel

Only -ER verbs fall into this category. To form the stem, remove the
vowel from the infinitive ending, then add the conditional endings.

Conjugation Example:

poder (to be able to) 

podría podríamos
podrías podríais
podría podrían

Other Verbs like Poder

Infinitive Conditional Stem

caber cabr-
haber habr-
querer querr-
saber sabr-

 ¿Podrías pasar el agua? (Would you pass the water?)

 Querría aprender japonés. (I would like to learn Japanese.)

3. Irregular stems

Some verbs just have irregular stems that must be memorized.

Fortunately, there are only two.

Irregular Conjugations

decir (dir-) to tell  hacer (har-) to make/to do 

diría diríamos haría haríamos
dirías diríais harías haríais
diría dirían haría harían

 Diríais el cuento de tu aventura en el caribe. (You would tell

your story of your adventure in the Carribbean.)
 Harías el pastel. (You would make the cake.)