Present conditional (e.g.: Eu falaria)

An Overview of the Present Conditional (Condicional Presente)

The present conditional has two main uses:

a) Politeness

It is used to make requests or statements more polite:

• Gostaria de ir.

• Poderia ajudar-me?

b) Hypothetical situations

It expresses actions that would happen under certain conditions:

• Faria isso se tivesse dinheiro suficiente.

👉 The conditional is often used with clauses introduced by se, but it does not follow se directly. Instead, use:

• present (se tenho tempo)

• imperfect (se tinha tempo)

• imperfect subjunctive (se tivesse tempo)

How to Form the Present Conditional

The conditional is formed by adding endings to the infinitive:

Common Irregular Verbs

Many frequent verbs use irregular stems (same as the future):

• sair → sairia

• querer → quereria

• dizer → diria

• fazer → faria

• valer → valeria

• ter → teria

• caber → caberia

• saber → saberia

• pôr → poria

• vir → viria

• poder → poderia

• haver → haveria

🔑 Key point

The present conditional expresses:

• politeness

• hypothetical or unreal situations