Spanish conditional tense: forms and practice

For Spanish conditional tense practice that works, conjugate 18 sentences below, then check the key: each answer names its rule. If your teacher announced a quiz on the conditional, or you keep translating every English "would" the same way, this set targets exactly those points.

The conditional (condicional simple, also called pospretérito by the RAE) is the tense of "would": hablaría, "I would speak". It talks about hypothetical situations and about the future as seen from the past.

How do you form the Spanish conditional tense?

Take the whole infinitive and add one set of endings for all three verb groups: -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían. Hablar becomes hablaría, comer becomes comería, vivir becomes viviría. Every form carries a written accent on the í, and forgetting it is the most common spelling mistake on tests.

Verdict: one set of endings for -ar, -er and -ir verbs makes this the easiest tense to conjugate, so most points are lost on stems and uses, not on endings. More grammar topics sit on the Spanish guides hub.

Which Spanish conditional verbs are irregular?

Twelve common Spanish verbs are irregular in the conditional, and only their stem changes: the endings stay -ía, -ías, -ía. These stems are the same as in the future tense. The RAE dictionary's conjugation tables give cabría for caber and haría for hacer (checked October 2026).

• Drop the vowel: caber → cabría, haber → habría, poder → podría, querer → querría, saber → sabría.
• Add a d: poner → pondría, salir → saldría, tener → tendría, valer → valdría, venir → vendría.
• Short stems: decir → diría, hacer → haría.

Compound verbs follow the base verb: mantener gives mantendría, deshacer gives desharía. Ir is regular here (iría), which surprises students who expect it to be irregular everywhere.

Spanish conditional tense practice: 18 sentences to fill in

Write the conditional of the verb in brackets before you look at the key. Sentences 1 to 4 are regular, 5 to 12 irregular, and 13 to 18 test uses. Careful: two of the last six do not take the conditional at all.

Regular verbs

1. Yo ___ (viajar) a Chile con más dinero. (I would travel to Chile with more money.)
2. ¿Tú ___ (comer) insectos? (Would you eat insects?)
3. Nosotros ___ (vivir) cerca de la playa. (We would live near the beach.)
4. Ellos ___ (preferir) otra fecha. (They would prefer another date.)

Irregular verbs

5. ¿Qué ___ (hacer) tú en mi lugar? (What would you do in my place?)
6. Yo no ___ (decir) eso. (I wouldn't say that.)
7. Ustedes ___ (poder) llegar a las ocho. (You could arrive at eight.)
8. Ella ___ (tener) que estudiar más. (She would have to study more.)
9. ¿___ (saber) usted dónde está la estación? (Would you know where the station is?)
10. Nosotros no ___ (caber) en ese coche. (We wouldn't fit in that car.)
11. Mis padres ___ (venir) el domingo, pero trabajan. (My parents would come on Sunday, but they work.)
12. Eso ___ (valer) la pena. (That would be worth it.)

Uses and traps

13. Si ___ (tener) tiempo, ___ (aprender) italiano. (If I had time, I would learn Italian.)
14. Me dijo que ___ (llamar) el lunes. (She told me she would call on Monday.)
15. ¿___ (poder) ayudarme, por favor? (Could you help me, please?)
16. De niños, ___ (jugar) en la calle todas las tardes. (As kids, we would play in the street every afternoon.)
17. No sé a qué hora llegó. ___ (ser) las diez. (I don't know what time he arrived. It was probably ten.)
18. Tú ___ (deber) dormir más. (You should sleep more.)

Spanish conditional answer key: which form, and why?

Count one point per correct form, accent included. Fifteen or more means the conditional is solid. Under twelve, copy the irregular stems onto a card and redo sentences 5 to 12 tomorrow, out loud.

Verdict: if you missed 13 or 16, the problem is English, not Spanish. If you wrote prefierirían for sentence 4, you carried over the present-tense stem change, which the conditional never uses.

Why is si tendría wrong in a Spanish conditional sentence?

Si tendría is wrong because the if-clause takes the imperfect subjunctive in standard Spanish: si tuviera dinero, te haría un regalo. The conditional belongs only in the result clause. The RAE's Glosario de términos gramaticales says the conditional after si is heard colloquially in some regions but is strongly discredited in educated speech (checked October 2026).

The same glossary lists other slots where the conditional replaces the subjunctive in careless speech and should not: para que sería (write para que fuera), ojalá llovería (write ojalá lloviera), cuando tendría tiempo (write cuando tuviera tiempo). On a written test, each of those costs you.

The order of the two halves does not matter: te haría un regalo si tuviera dinero is the same sentence. What matters is that si never sits next to the conditional. Our por and para drills use the same answer-key format if you want a second set this week.

When does English "would" not translate as the Spanish conditional?

English "would" is the Spanish conditional only when it means a hypothetical result or a future seen from the past. When "would" describes a repeated past habit, Spanish uses the imperfect: "every summer we would go to the lake" is cada verano íbamos al lago. Sentence 16 tests exactly that.

Two more cases trip students. "Would" in a past refusal ("he wouldn't open the door") is usually the preterite of querer: no quiso abrir la puerta. And "could" for a past ability is a past tense, not podría: "I could swim at five" is sabía nadar a los cinco años.

The RAE glossary also lists uses English does not share. Tendría ocho o nueve años means "he was probably eight or nine", a guess about the past (sentence 17). Convendría escribirle softens advice into "it might be a good idea to write to him".

How do you practice the Spanish conditional out loud?

You practice the Spanish conditional out loud by answering and asking ¿Qué harías si…? questions, because they force both the conditional and the imperfect subjunctive in one sentence. Write five: ¿Qué harías si ganaras la lotería?, ¿Adónde viajarías si pudieras?, then answer each in two sentences, out loud.

Ask them too. Our guide to the Spanish question words helps you vary the openers so every question does not start with qué. Not sure if the subjunctive is at your level yet? The level quiz takes a few minutes.

A tutor helps when an oral exam is close and nobody corrects si tendría as you say it. My own lessons are in English, not Spanish, but what moved me forward was speaking for most of every lesson. Our page for students preparing a test and the guide on finding an online Spanish tutor cover prices and how to test one.

Skip paid lessons if the conditional is your only gap: redo the 18 sentences in two days, then again in a week, for free.