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Spanish 3 Unit 5: The Future and Conditional

This unit teaches the simple future and the conditional: how to form them, their shared irregular stems, and their uses for predictions, polite requests, hypotheticals and guesses about the present or past.

Covers: Regular future forms, Regular conditional forms, Irregular stems, Polite requests and hypotheticals, Probability and conjecture, Future in the past

Study guide

The simple future is formed by adding endings directly to the whole infinitive, with no stem removed: -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án. The same endings work for -ar, -er and -ir verbs: hablaré, comerás, vivirá, iremos. Every form except nosotros has a written accent. The future expresses what will happen (Mañana lloverá), but in everyday speech the construction ir a + infinitive (Va a llover) is more common for near plans. Tests often ask you to convert between the two: Voy a estudiar ↔ Estudiaré.

The conditional uses the same base as the future, but with the endings -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían: hablaría, comerías, viviríamos. These endings are identical to the -er/-ir imperfect endings, but in the conditional they attach to the infinitive, not the stem. Compare comía (I used to eat, imperfect) with comería (I would eat, conditional). The conditional means would: Yo viajaría a Chile (I would travel to Chile). It also softens requests: ¿Podría ayudarme? (Could you help me?) and Me gustaría un café (I would like a coffee).

Twelve common verbs use irregular stems in both the future and the conditional, with the regular endings. Drop the vowel: poder → podr-, saber → sabr-, haber → habr-, querer → querr-, caber → cabr-. Replace the vowel with d: tener → tendr-, poner → pondr-, salir → saldr-, venir → vendr-, valer → valdr-. Fully irregular: decir → dir-, hacer → har-. So tendré, tendría; diré, diría; haré, haría. Compound verbs follow the base verb: mantener → mantendré, componer → compondría, deshacer → desharé.

Both tenses also express probability or conjecture, which English handles with words like probably or I wonder. The future guesses about the present: ¿Qué hora será? (I wonder what time it is.) Serán las tres (It's probably three o'clock). The conditional guesses about the past: ¿Dónde estaría Juan anoche? (I wonder where Juan was last night.) Estaría en casa (He was probably at home). This use surprises many students, because the verb form looks future or hypothetical but the meaning is present or past probability.

The conditional also reports what someone said about the future from a past point of view. Direct speech: Ana dice: Llegaré tarde. Reported in the present: Ana dice que llegará tarde. Reported in the past: Ana dijo que llegaría tarde. This is called the future in the past. Finally, be careful with English would: when it means used to, Spanish uses the imperfect, not the conditional. When I was a child, I would play outside every day is De niño, jugaba afuera todos los días.

Key ideas

• The future adds -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án to the full infinitive.
• The conditional adds -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían to the same base.
• Twelve common verbs share irregular stems in the future and conditional (tendr-, dir-, har-, podr-, etc.).
• The conditional expresses would, polite requests and hypothetical situations.
• The future expresses probability in the present; the conditional expresses probability in the past.
• After a past reporting verb, a future action is expressed with the conditional.
• English would meaning used to is the imperfect in Spanish, not the conditional.

Formulas and rules

Common mistakes

• Removing the -ar/-er/-ir ending before adding future endings (*hablé instead of hablaré).
• Confusing the conditional comería with the imperfect comía.
• Using regular stems for irregular verbs (*tenería, *hacerá, *decirá).
• Translating would meaning used to with the conditional instead of the imperfect.
• Missing the probability meaning and translating ¿Dónde estará? as Where will he be? when it means I wonder where he is.

Before the test, make sure you can

• Form the future and conditional of regular verbs in all persons.
• Produce the twelve irregular stems in both tenses.
• Convert ir a + infinitive into the simple future.
• Use the conditional for polite requests and hypothetical situations.
• Interpret and produce the future and conditional of probability.
• Report past statements about the future using the conditional.
• Distinguish conditional would from imperfect used to.

Words to know

el porvenir

the future

algún día

someday

dentro de (dos años)

in (two years)

la meta

goal

predecir

to predict

la carrera

career; college major

el puesto

position, job

el sueldo

salary

jubilarse

to retire

graduarse

to graduate

el/la abogado/a

lawyer

me gustaría

I would like

¿podría...?

could you...?

debería

I/you should

en tu lugar

in your place

valer la pena

to be worth it

probablemente

probably

¿qué hora será?

I wonder what time it is

suponer

to suppose

mantener

to maintain; to support

Sample practice questions

30 more questions like these, from level 1 to 5, are in the practice set.