Future and Conditional Tenses

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Future and Conditional Tenses
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• Before learning to form the future and
  conditional, lets look at them in English
• Future I will speak.
• The future tense in English ALWAYS has the
  word will (or shall). It can be abbeviated
  ll (Ill speak, shell speak, etc.). As
  its name indicates, it shows actions that have
  not yet taken place but that will do so in the
  future.

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• Conditional is a little trickier, because we
  dont have a conditional tense in English. We
  dont call it a tense, at any rate. But the
  equivalent is would verb
• I would speak.
• Now, dont get this mixed up with the imperfect
• I would play outside every day when I was little.
  (imperfect)
• I would play outside today if I could.
  (conditional)
• With the conditional, theres usually a stated or
  implied if
• I wouldnt eat that chocolate (if I were you).
• I would buy that car (if I had enough money).

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• The conditional is also the future of the past.
  Huh? Consider
• I will go with you, Juan said yesterday.
• Juan said that he would go with me.
• What moment in time are we looking at? Juan
  said thats our moment. The action of Juans
  going with me? That hasnt happened yet at the
  moment of Juan said, but the whole sentence is
  in the past. So would is the future of Juan
  said, but the whole sentence is in the past, so
  would is the future of the past. Get it?

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• The long and short of it is that would is
  ALWAYS part of the conditional translation.

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• The stem for both the future and the
  conditional is the infinitive
• hablar- comer- vivir-
• trabajar- leer- escribir-
• mirar- volver- abrir-
• Following are the endings for the future (-ar,
  -er, and ir verbs)
• -é -emos
• -ás -éis
• -á -án
• hablaré hablaremos comeré comeremos
  viviré viviremos
• hablarás hablaréis comerás comeréis
  vivirás viviréis
• hablará hablarán comerá comerán
  vivirá vivirán

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• Note the future endings, with the exception of
  the vosotros ending, are the same as the
  present perfect helping verb minus the h
• -é -emos
• -ás -éis
• -á -án
• he hemos
• has habéis
• ha han

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• Click here to go to a brief practice exercise.

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Irregular Verbs

• No verbs stem change in the future or
  conditional, and there are no spell changes.
  However, there are several irregular stems
• verbs where a d verbs where
  the e verbs where two
• replaces the i or e
  disappears letters disappear
• salir saldr- poder podr-
  decir dir-
• venir vendr- querer querr-
  hacer har-
• poner pondr- saber sabr-
• tener tendr- haber habr-

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• Click here to go to a brief practice exercise.

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Conditional

• Like the future, the conditional uses the
  infinitive as its stem. All the stems that are
  irregular in the future (poner pondr-, hacer
  har-, etc.) are also irregular in the
  conditional.
• Here are the endings for the conditional
• hablaría hablaríamos
• hablarías hablaríais
• hablaría hablarían
• Note that these endings are exactly the same as
  the er/-ir endings for the imperfect
• comía (imperfect) comería
  (conditional)

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Summary

• The future and conditional use the infinitive as
  the stem (no dropping of the ar, -er, -ir) and
  have the same irregular stems.
• The future translates with will, and the
  conditional translates with would.
• future endings conditional endings
• -é -emos -ía íamos
• -ás -éis -ías íais
• -á -án -ía ían

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• Click here to go to a brief practice exercise.