El condicional: 'I would do it' and the polite request
English has one 'would' for every occasion; Spanish has a whole tense for it — el condicional — and it is the simplest of all to build: the endings -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían attach to the whole infinitive. Trabajar → trabajaría, comer → comería, vivir → viviría. No stem changes, and always an accent over the 'i'. For example: “¿Podría explicarme las condiciones del contrato?” — Could you explain the terms…
How it works
English has one 'would' for every occasion; Spanish has a whole tense for it — el condicional — and it is the simplest of all to build: the endings -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían attach to the whole infinitive. Trabajar → trabajaría, comer → comería, vivir → viviría. No stem changes, and always an accent over the 'i'.
There are exactly twelve irregular stems, and they are the same ones as in the future tense: if you know tendré, then tendría comes for free. Tener → tendría, poder → podría, hacer → haría, decir → diría, salir → saldría, venir → vendría, poner → pondría, saber → sabría, querer → querría, haber → habría, caber → cabría, valer → valdría.
The condicional holds four jobs. The first and most frequent is politeness: ¿podría enviarme el contrato? is softer than ¿puede?, and me gustaría softer than quiero. The second is advice: deberías descansar, yo que tú aceptaría la oferta. The third is conjecture about the past: serían las diez cuando llamó — 'it was about ten when he called'. The fourth is the future in the past: dijo que vendría — 'he said he would come'.
And the main event — the unreal condition. English builds 'if I had experience, they would hire me' out of one 'had' and one 'would'; Spanish uses two distinct forms: in the si-part stands the imperfecto de subjuntivo, in the main one — the condicional: si tuviera experiencia, me contratarían. The -ra form is made from the third person plural of the preterite: tuvieron → tuviera, fueron → fuera, pudieron → pudiera. Two conditionals in a row never happen — si tendría does not exist, and it is the most conspicuous foreigner's mistake.
Nearby stands purpose: para with the infinitive when the same person acts (estudio para aprobar), and para que with the subjuntivo when there are two: te mando el currículum para que lo veas. The logic is the same as in the unreal condition: the purpose has not come true yet, and Spanish flags it with the verb form.
Table
| person | trabajar | tener (irregular) | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | trabajaría | tendría | I would work / there would be |
| tú | trabajarías | tendrías | you would work |
| él, ella, usted | trabajaría | tendría | he would work |
| nosotros | trabajaríamos | tendríamos | we would work |
| vosotros | trabajaríais | tendríais | you would work |
| ellos, ustedes | trabajarían | tendrían | they would work |
By example
- ¿Podría explicarme las condiciones del contrato?Could you explain the terms of the contract to me?
- Si tuviera más experiencia, me contratarían enseguidaIf I had more experience, they would hire me on the spot
- Te dejo el informe para que lo leas antes de la reuniónI leave you the report so you can read it before the meeting
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
El condicional: how does it work in Spanish?
English has one 'would' for every occasion; Spanish has a whole tense for it — el condicional — and it is the simplest of all to build: the endings -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían attach to the whole infinitive. Trabajar → trabajaría, comer → comería, vivir → viviría. No stem changes, and…
What does it look like in an example sentence Spanish?
“¿Podría explicarme las condiciones del contrato?” — Could you explain the terms of the contract to me?. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.