Conditional Tense: Irregular Stems & Uses
Practice the twelve irregular conditional stems, the -ía endings, and the tense's three main uses.
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Questions Covered in This Set
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What stems does the conditional use?
Exactly the same stems as the future — all twelve irregulars are identical (habr-, podr-, querr-, sabr-, cabr-, tendr-, pondr-, vendr-, saldr-, valdr-, har-, dir-).
List the six conditional endings.
-ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían — every form carries a written accent on the í.
Which two conditional forms are identical, and how are they distinguished?
yo and él/ella/usted (e.g. tendría). Context or an explicit pronoun disambiguates.
Conjugate tener in the full conditional.
tendría, tendrías, tendría, tendríamos, tendríais, tendrían
What are the three main uses of the conditional?
1) Hypothetical 'would' (often with si + imperfect subjunctive), 2) politeness/softening, 3) future-in-the-past in reported speech.
Turn into reported speech: 'Dice que vendrá mañana.'
Dijo que vendría al día siguiente. — future becomes conditional, same stem, new endings.
When does English 'would' NOT become the Spanish conditional?
When it means 'used to' (a repeated past habit) — then Spanish uses the imperfect: De niño, iba a casa de mi abuela (not iría).
Give the conditional of hacer and decir (yo form).
haría and diría — the 'chopped' stems har- and dir-.
How do compound verbs behave in the conditional?
They inherit the stem: componer → compondría, deshacer → desharía, contradecir → contradiría, mantener → mantendría, convenir → convendría.
Convert to conditional: saldrán, pondrás, cabré, valdrá.
saldrían (they would leave), pondrías (you would put), cabría (I would fit), valdría (it would be worth).
