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4.02: Il condizionale presente

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    The present conditional

    We use the conditional to say what we woulddo or what wouldhappen. It expresses possibility:

    Io verrei alla tua festa, ma ho troppo lavoro da fare.  [I would come to your party, but I have too much work to do.]

    We also use the conditional to request things politely:

    Mi aiuteresti, per favore?  [Would you help me, please?]

    To conjugate the verb according to the subject that performs the action:

      • drop the final -e of the infinitive;
      • for -ARE verbs, change the-a of the infinitive to -e (practically speaking, –are and –ere verbs share the same conjugation);
      • add the following endings:
      diventare prendere aprire sentirsi
    [io] diventerei prenderei aprirei mi sentirei
    [tu] diventeresti  prenderesti apriresti ti sentiresti
    [lui, lei] diventerebbe prenderebbe aprirebbe si sentirebbe
    [noi] diventeremmo prenderemmo apriremmo ci sentiremmo
    [voi] diventereste prendereste aprireste vi sentireste
    [loro] diventerebbero prenderebbero aprirebbero si sentirebbero

    Exceptions and particular cases

        • Verbs in -care and -gare add an h so as to keep the same sound, as in cercare: io cerchereiun lavoro lontano da casa.
        • Verbs in-ciare and -giare drop the i of the infinitive, as in cominciare: iocomincerei a lavorare il 3 aprile.
        • These short verbs in -are do not change the -a to-e:  dare →  darei; fare →  farei;  stare →  starei.
        • There are many irregular verbs:
    andare andrei, andresti…
    avere avrei, avresti…
    bere berrei, berresti…
    cadere cadrei, cadresti…
    dire direi, diresti…
    dovere dovrei, dovresti…
    essere sarei, saresti…
    * piacere mi, ti ecc. piacerebbe (piacerebbero)
    potere potrei, potresti…
    rimanere rimarrei, rimarresti…
    sapere saprei, sapresti…
    tenere terrei, terresti…
    vedere vedrei, vedresti…
    venire verrei, verresti…
    vivere vivrei, vivresti…
    volere vorrei, vorresti…

    We also use the conditional to express advice. Notice that the conditional of dovere →  dovrei, dovresti, etc. translates into the English should.

    Secondo me, dovresti aggiornare il tuo curriculum.  [I think you should update your resume.]

    Another way to express advice and points of view is the following, which translates into the English If I were you (or if you were me, etc.)

    al posto mio  [in my place] Al posto mio, lui non lascerebbe questo lavoro.
    al posto tuo  [in your place] Al posto tuo, io non lascerei questo lavoro.
    al posto suo  [in his/her place] Al posto suo, non lascerei questo lavoro.
    al posto nostro  [in our place] Al posto nostro, loro non lascerebbero questo lavoro.
    al posto vostro [in your place] Al posto vostro, noi non lasceremmo questo lavoro.
    al posto loro [in their place] Al posto loro, io non lascerei questo lavoro.

    Also: al posto di Maria, al posto di mio padre, etc.

    Good news: the future tense, which you will soon study, uses the same root forms as the conditional tense, just different endings!

    This page titled 4.02: Il condizionale presente was last modified on Thu, 10 Mar 2022 21:38:15 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Daniel Leisawitz and Daniela Viale via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.