How do you form the conditional in Spanish?
As in the future, there is no stem to find: the infinitive is the stem. Hablar gives hablaría, comer gives comería, vivir gives viviría, and every verb takes the same six endings.
Every form carries a written accent on the í: hablaría, hablaríamos, hablarían. The í and the a are said as two syllables, the same accent as día or leído.
The endings are the imperfect's endings for comer and vivir — comía, vivía — put on the whole infinitive, and that is their history: Spanish joined the infinitive to the old imperfect of haber (hía), and amar hía fused into amaría. Comía is I was eating; comería, I would eat. Yo and él share a form, as in the imperfect, so add the subject when it is not clear: yo hablaría, ella hablaría.
| Person | Ending | hablar · comer · vivir |
|---|---|---|
| yo | -ía | hablaría · comería · viviría |
| tú | -ías | hablarías · comerías · vivirías |
| él, ella, usted | -ía | hablaría · comería · viviría |
| nosotros | -íamos | hablaríamos · comeríamos · viviríamos |
| vosotros | -íais | hablaríais · comeríais · viviríais |
| ellos, ustedes | -ían | hablarían · comerían · vivirían |
The 12 irregular verbs in the conditional
These are the future's stems exactly — tendré and tendría, podré and podría, haré and haría — so they are learned once for two tenses. The grammar treats them as one set: the irregular forms of the future and the conditional together. The future tense has the same twelve with the future's endings.
The mistakes are the regular forms a learner builds from the rule: tenería, podería, hacería, deciría. The academies' grammar sets the last one beside the right form — diría, not deciría. Querría keeps both r's: querría, querrías.
Compounds keep the short stem: mantendría, propondría, desharía. The compounds of decir split: bendecir and maldecir are regular (bendeciría, maldeciría), and predecir and contradecir accept both forms (prediría or predeciría). Habría is the conditional of hay: habría más gente si fuera gratis.
| What happens | Verbs | Conditional (yo) |
|---|---|---|
| A d replaces the vowel | tener, poner, venir, salir, valer | tendría, pondría, vendría, saldría, valdría |
| The vowel drops | poder, saber, caber, haber, querer | podría, sabría, cabría, habría, querría |
| The stem shortens | hacer, decir | haría, diría |
What does the conditional mean? Its five jobs
Something imagined: the conditional says what would happen in a situation that is not real or not likely — si tuviera dinero, te prestaría. It does not go after si itself: si tuviera, not si tendría. The academies record si tendría in conversation in northern Spain and in popular speech in parts of South America, and recommend avoiding it. Si clauses has every pattern.
A polite request or wish: ¿podrías…?, ¿te importaría…?, me gustaría, querría. With querer, poder and deber, the -ra form of the imperfect subjunctive does the same job — quisiera pedirle un favor, pudiera ser, debieras descansar — but the -se form does not: pudiera ser, not pudiese. Plain quería is polite too: quería un café. All of these are right.
Advice: deberías, yo en tu lugar…, yo que tú…. The imperfect can stand in for the conditional here — yo en tu lugar no lo aceptaba — and in the future seen from the past: nos dijo que hoy no venía a trabajar.
A guess about the past: serían las diez — it was probably about ten; tendría entonces treinta años — he must have been about thirty then. It is the past of the future that guesses about now: serán las diez.
| Job | Example | In English |
|---|---|---|
| Something imagined | Si pudiera, iría. | If I could, I'd go. |
| A polite request | ¿Podrías ayudarme? | Could you help me? |
| Advice | Yo en tu lugar no lo aceptaría. | I wouldn't accept it if I were you. |
| The future, seen from the past | Dijo que vendría. | She said she'd come. |
| A guess about the past | Serían las diez. | It must have been about ten. |
When English would and could are not the conditional
Would for a habit in the past — what you used to do — is the imperfect in Spanish: de niño iba andando al colegio, los domingos comíamos con mis abuelos. The conditional does not state a habit; iría andando could only be a guess that you probably did.
Would not for a refusal is the preterite of querer: no quiso decírmelo — she refused to tell me. No querría decírmelo says she would not want to.
Could for what someone was able to do is the past of poder or saber: a los cinco años ya sabía leer, anoche no pude dormir. Podría is could in the sense of would be able to, or might: podría llover esta tarde.
In a request, could and would are the conditional, as in English: ¿podrías…?, ¿te importaría…?
| English | Spanish | Why |
|---|---|---|
| As a kid, I would walk to school. | De niño, iba andando al colegio. | A habit: the imperfect |
| She wouldn't tell me. | No quiso decírmelo. | A refusal: no quiso |
| At five, I could already read. | A los cinco años ya sabía leer. | An ability: sabía, podía |
| I couldn't sleep last night. | Anoche no pude dormir. | It happened: pude |
| Could you help me? | ¿Podrías ayudarme? | A request: the conditional |
Why do English speakers get the conditional wrong?
English makes the conditional with a separate word, would, and uses the same word for habits and refusals, so learners put the Spanish ending where Spanish wants the imperfect or the preterite: iría for iba, no querría for no quiso. Inside the tense the slips are the future's — tenería for tendría, hacería for haría, the accent left off — and after si the conditional slips in where Spanish wants the imperfect subjunctive: si tendría for si tuviera.
Our own grading data shows how often. Nivelo grades every conversation turn and writing task against the grammar it uses. Across 14 learners and 136 conditional forms (recounted 24 September 2026), 48% were wrong — 42% at B2. The count covers every slip in the tense: a wrong stem, a missing accent, a conditional where another form was needed. It is a count of our own learners, not a study.
What comes after the conditional?
The imperfect subjunctive is the conditional's partner in the unlikely if — si tuviera tiempo, iría — and the form behind a polite quisiera. Si clauses lays out every if-sentence. The future tense has the same twelve stems with the future's endings. The imperfect tense has the same endings on its -er and -ir verbs: comía, comería. Preterite vs imperfect is the choice behind iba and no quiso, and tener que, deber or hay que covers deberías. The conditional sentence said without thinking is part of the step from B1 to B2: B1 vs B2 Spanish says what else changes there. The free Spanish level test places you on the A1–C2 scale in five minutes.