COUNTDOWN TO SPANISH

Uses of the Conditional

Use the conditional as follows:
• The conditional is used to express what would happen under certain
conditions: Si hiciera buen tiempo, yo no iría al cine. Yo montaría en
bicicleta. (If the weather were nice, I wouldn’t go to the movies. I’d
go bike riding.)
When would has the sense of “used to,” the imperfect is used:
Viajaba en Europa a menudo. (I would (used to) travel to Europe
often.)
When would has the sense of “to be willing, to want,” the preterit
of querer is used: Quise viajar a Europa. (I wanted [was willing]
to travel to Europe.)
• The conditional is used to express wonder and probability in
the past:
¿Cuántos años tendría? I wonder how old you were.

Sería la medianoche. It was probably midnight.

Estarían viejos. They must have been old.

THE PERFECT CONDITIONAL

Use the perfect conditional to describe an action or event that would
have taken place in the past had something else happened.
Because you are expressing what would have happened, you need the
conditional of the helping verb haber + the past participle of the verb
that shows the action or event that would have been completed. The
conditional of haber is:

haber—to have
yo habría (ah-bree-yah) nosotros habríamos (ah-bree-yah-mohs)

tú habrías (ah-bree-yahs) vosotros habríais (ah-bree-yah-ees)

él habría (ah-bree-yah) ellos habrían (ah-bree-yan)

Con más tiempo, yo habría With more time, I would have finished
terminado el trabajo. the work.

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