By Lingobi, Published on 07/03/2025
If I had more time, I would travel the world. If I were you, I’d practice more Spanish. These are examples of the conditional tense — one of the most powerful tools in Spanish to express possibilities, hypothetical situations, and politeness.
Learning how to use the conditional tense correctly opens up new levels of fluency. It helps you sound more natural, softens requests, and allows you to imagine different outcomes. In this post, we’ll break down how the conditional works, how to form it, and how to use it like a native speaker — with plenty of examples and a detailed conjugation table.
The conditional tense is used to talk about what would happen under certain conditions. It's similar to the English “would” + verb. It can express hypothetical situations, future-in-the-past, polite requests, or wishes.
The good news: regular verbs use the same endings for -ar, -er, and -ir. You simply add the endings to the full infinitive form of the verb. No need to remove -ar, -er, or -ir.
| Subject | Hablar (to speak) | Comer (to eat) | Vivir (to live) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yo | hablaría | comería | viviría |
| Tú | hablarías | comerías | vivirías |
| Él/Ella/Usted | hablaría | comería | viviría |
| Nosotros | hablaríamos | comeríamos | viviríamos |
| Vosotros | hablaríais | comeríais | viviríais |
| Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes | hablarían | comerían | vivirían |
Some verbs have irregular stems but use the same endings. You’ve probably already seen them in the future tense — they’re the same in the conditional.
Use it to talk about things that would happen if something else were true.
Softening a request is a polite and native-like use of the conditional.
When you’re dreaming or imagining — the conditional is your tool.
This is when someone said they "would" do something. It’s reporting speech in the past.
When I was learning Spanish, using the conditional helped me sound more polite and natural — especially when chatting with locals on Lingobi. Practicing hypothetical questions helped me improve quickly. Try making your own sentences and use them in conversation as soon as possible.
What would you do if you spoke perfect Spanish? Start answering questions like that — and you’ll naturally master the conditional tense.
Ready to try? Jump into a practice session or one of our chat games inside Lingobi and see how much progress you can make!
