Daddy Learns Spanish

Conditional Tense (Condicional)

Used for hypothetical situations, polite requests, and what 'would' happen.

When to use

  • Hypothetical situations: Yo viajaría a España (I would travel to Spain).
  • Polite requests: ¿Podrías ayudarme? (Could you help me?).
  • Future in the past: Dijo que vendría (He said he would come).

Regular conjugation patterns

all verbse.g. hablar (hablar)
yo-ía
tú-ías
él/ella-ía
nosotros-íamos
vosotros-íais
ellos/ellas-ían

Key irregular verbs

tener → tendríavenir → vendríaponer → pondríasalir → saldríahacer → haríadecir → diríapoder → podríasaber → sabríaquerer → querría

Verb patterns in this tense

Irregular future stems

These verbs use a modified stem in future and conditional tenses instead of the full infinitive.

tenervenirponersalirhacerdecirpodersaberquerer

Tips

  • Conditional uses the same stems as the future tense — if you know the future irregular stems, you know the conditional ones.
  • The endings are identical to the imperfect -er/-ir endings (-ía, -ías, etc.).
  • The conditional is the 'would' tense: hablaría = I would speak.