The Italian Conditional

In Italian, the conditional mood is used to talk about hypothetical situations or things that could happen under certain circumstances. It works much like the English would construction.

You can also reverse the order of the sentence without changing the meaning:

How to Form the Conditional

To form the conditional, take the infinitive form of the verb, remove the final -e, and add the appropriate endings.

For -are and -ere verbs

Note: For -are verbs, the -a changes to -e before adding the endings.

Mangiare – to eat

For -ire verbs

Dormire – to sleep

Verbs with Special Spelling Rules

Verbs ending in -isc in the present tense do not use -isc- in the conditional.
Example: Finire → finirei, not finirei.

Verbs ending in -care or -gare add an h before the ending.
Example: Pagare → pagherei

Verbs ending in -ciare or -giare drop the i before the endings.
Example: Incominciare → incomincerei, not incomincierei

Other Uses of the Conditional

Expressing Desires Politely – Would Like

Use the conditional of volere (to want) to express a wish or desire politely.

Conjugation of volere in the conditional:

In informal speech, Italians often use the imperfect tense instead of the conditional for requests:

Expressing Preferences – Mi piacerebbe

Making Polite Requests – Could

Use the conditional of potere (can) for polite requests:

Conditional of potere:

Giving Advice – Should

Use dovere (must) in the conditional to give advice:

Conditional of dovere:

Irregular Verbs in the Conditional

These verbs have irregular stems, but they use regular conditional endings.

The Verb Essere (To Be) in the Conditional

The Verb Avere (To Have) in the Conditional

The Past Conditional – Condizionale Passato

The past conditional expresses hypothetical actions that could have happened but didn’t.

It’s also often used to report speech:

Forming the Past Conditional

Use the conditional of avere or essere + the past participle.
Use essere for reflexive verbs and verbs of movement.