Spanish Conditional Tense – Learn and Practice

Welcome 😊 to our grammar lesson on the Spanish Conditional Tense (“El Condicional”).

We use the Conditional mainly to talk about what would happen in hypothetical situations.

A sentence with a verb in Spanish Conditional Tense.
A sentence with a verb in Conditional Tense (in green)

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to conjugate verbs in Conditional Tense and use them in sentences.

You will also find a Quiz and Exercises to practice.

Conjugation of regular verbs in Conditional Tense

Conjugating regular verbs in Conditional Tense is easy:

  • It doesn’t matter if the verb ends in -ar, -er or -ir.
  • We simply add the following endings at the end of the verb’s Infinitive form:
PersonEnding
yo-ía
-ías
él-ía
nosotros-íamos
vosotros-íais
ellos-ían


For example, here are the conjugations of “amar”, “ser” and “sentir” in Conditional Tense:

amar

to love

ser

to be

sentir

to feel

yoamaríaseríasentiría
amaríasseríassentirías
élamaríaseríasentiría
nosotrosamaríamosseríamossentiríamos
vosotrosamaríaisseríaissentiríais
ellosamaríanseríansentirían

Conjugation of irregular verbs

Irregular verbs use the same endings as regular verbs, but there is an irregularity in their stem.

Here are the most important irregular verbs:

VerbIrregular stemFull conjugation
decir

to say

dir-diría, dirías, diría, diríamos, diríais, dirían
haber

(auxiliary verb)

habr-habría, habrías, habría, habríamos, habríais, habrían
hacer

to do

har-haría, harías, haría, haríamos, haríais, harían
poder

can

podr-podría, podrías, podría, podríamos, podríais, podrían
poner

to put

pondr-pondría, pondrías, pondría, pondríamos, pondríais, pondrían
querer

to want

querr-querría, querrías, querría, querríamos, querríais, querrían
saber

to know

sabr-sabría, sabrías, sabría, sabríamos, sabríais, sabrían
salir

to get out

saldr-saldría, saldrías, saldría, saldríamos, saldríais, saldrían
tener

to have

tendr-tendría, tendrías, tendría, tendríamos, tendríais, tendrían
venir

to come

vendr-vendría, vendrías, vendría, vendríamos, vendríais, vendrían


Similarities between the Conditional and Future Tenses

The Conditional and Future Tenses have very similar conjugations.

We invite you to compare them and observe how similar they are: Click here to learn the Future Tense

Uses of the Conditional Tense

In general, we can associate the Conditional Tense to the English word “would”: Most English sentences that include “would” are translated into Spanish in the Conditional tense.

Let’s study the most frequent uses of the Conditional:

Conditional statements: If A happened, then B would happen

We use the Conditional tense to express what would happen if a hypothetical condition were met.

The hypothetical condition is expressed in another tense called Imperfect Subjunctive (Click to learn this tense), and the consequence in Conditional Tense:

Si tú estudiaras más, aprobarías el examen.
If you studied harder, you would pass the exam.

Yo compraría esta chaqueta si tuviera dinero.
I would buy this jacket if I had money.

Si ganáramos la lotería, viajaríamos por todo el mundo.
If we won the lottery, we would travel all over the world.

Ellos responderían si alguien preguntara.
They would answer if someone asked.


For “could” and “should”

We use the verbs “poder” and “deber” in Conditional Tense to express the English “could” and “should”:

"poder" in Conditional (English "could")"deber" in Conditional (English "should")
yopodríadebería
podríasdeberías
élpodríadebería
nosotrospodríamosdeberíamos
vosotrospodríaisdeberíais
ellospodríandeberían

In sentences, these forms are always followed by another verb in the Infinitive:

Si tuviéramos las herramientas, podríamos arreglar la radio.
If we had the tools, we could fix the radio.

Deberías ver esto.
You should see this.

Roberto no debería hablar tanto.
Roberto should not talk so much.


Expressing a wish or a request

Sometimes we use the Conditional Tense to express a wish or a request:

Me gustaría tener una casa bonita.
I would like to have a nice house.

¿Podría traerme la carta, por favor?
Could you bring me the menu, please?

De primer plato, querría una sopa de tomate.
For the first course, I would like a tomato soup.

Practice

Quiz

Take this short Quiz about the Conditional Tense:


Exercise 1

Conjugate the following regular verbs in Conditional Tense. Click on the gray spaces to see the solutions:

1) yo conduciría (conducir)
2) tú caminarías (caminar)
3) él patinaría (patinar)
4) nosotros bailaríamos (bailar)
5) vosotros leeríais (leer)
6) ellos cantarían (cantar)

Exercise 2

Conjugate the following irregular verbs in Conditional Tense:

1) yo pondría (poner)
2) tú querrías (querer)
3) él podría (poder)
4) nosotros sabríamos (saber)
5) vosotros diríais (decir)
6) ellos vendrían (venir)

Exercise 3

In this exercise, we practice the first use of the Conditional we have learned in this lesson: expressing what would happen if a hypothetical condition was met.

1) ¿Qué harían estas personas si ganasen la lotería? (hacer)
What would these people do if they won the lottery?

2) Marta viajaría alrededor del mundo. (viajar)
Marta would travel around the world.

3) Carlos y Luis no trabajarían un día más en toda su vida. (trabajar)
Carlos and Luis would never work another day in their entire lives.

4) Tú tendrías todos los videojuegos del mundo. (tener)
You would have all the video games in the world.

5) Nosotros compraríamos coches de lujo. (comprar)
We would buy luxury cars.

6) Vosotros saldríais a las discotecas más caras. (salir)
You guys would go out to the most expensive nightclubs.

Exercise 4

This exercise is about the second use of the Conditional we have learned in this lesson: for the English words “could” and “should”.

1) Tú podrías ganar el partido si entrenaras más. (could)
You could win the game if you trained more.

2) Nosotros deberíamos ayudar a mamá a limpiar la casa. (should)
We should help mom clean the house.

3) Yo creo que el gobierno debería gastar menos. (should)
I think the government should spend less.

4) ¿Podríais explicar el problema? (could)
Could you guys explain the problem?