Italian 5.4. The Conditional Tenses

In this lesson, we cover the conditional tenses in Italian.

One of the two conditional tenses in Italian is the simple conditional tense, which is used to describe a hypothetical situation, express wishes, give advice, or make a polite request. It is similar in its use to the simple conditional tense in English, for example, “I would do the laundry if I had time.”

Conjugation

To form the stem of the verb needed for regular verb conjugation, we drop the final “e” of the verb and change the final “-ar” to “-er” in the case of “-are” verbs. The endings are the same for the three types of verbs.

Irregular Verbs

The same verbs that are irregular in the simple future tense are also irregular in the simple conditional tense. Thus, we summarize these verbs here in a similar fashion:

1. Some verbs, in addition to dropping the final “e,” drop the vowel before the final “r” from the infinitive to form the stem.

For example, the stem from the verb “andare” becomes “andr-” instead of “andar-.” Other examples from this group are: “avere” (to have), “cadere” (to fall), “dovere” (must), “potere” (can), “sapere” (to know), “vedere” (to see), and “vivere” (to live).

2. Some short verbs with the “-are” ending do not change the “-ar” to “-er” after dropping the final “e” to form the stem.

The most common verbs in this group are: “dare” (to give), “fare” (to do or to make), and “stare” (to stay or to be).

3. Some verbs, in addition to dropping the final “e,” replace both the consonant and the vowel preceding the final “r” of the infinitive with an extra “r” to form the stem.

For example, the stem from “tenere” (to hold) is “terr-” instead of “tener-.” The most common verbs in this group are: “tenere” (to hold), “volere” (to want), and “venire” (to come).

4. Some verbs are completely irregular, such as “essere” (to be) and “bere” (to drink), whose stems are “sar-” and “berr-,” respectively.

5. Finally, the same orthographic changes applied to verbs ending in “-care,” “-gare,” “-ciare,” “-giare,” and “-gliare” in the present indicative tense and the simple future tense are applied here to maintain the proper pronunciation.

Examples

Here are some examples that use the simple conditional tense in Italian:

The Conditional Perfect: “Would/Could/Should have”

To convey the meaning of “would/could/should have …” in Italian, we resort to the conditional perfect tense. The conditional perfect is one of the two conditional tenses in Italian.

“Would have”

“Would have” + past participle = “avere” or “essere” in conditional tense + past participle, for example:

“Could have”

“Could have” + past participle = “avere” or “essere” in conditional tense + “potere” in past participle + infinitive, for example:

“Should have”

“Should have” + past participle = “avere” or “essere” in conditional tense + “dovere” in past participle + infinitive, for example:

Next: Present Subjunctive Tense II

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