Grammar Guide - Conditional Tense

Hi I suggest for all the students interested in learning El condicional to check the podcast "Hit the Jackpot".

Enjoy!!

is the conditional tense the same for the first person, second person and third person?

por exemplo:  "Llamar" To Call

Yo digo que te Llamaria

Te digo que me llamaria

Le digo que nos llamarias

Nos digamos que les llamarian

Lorabarrett

The conditional for the first person singular and third person singular are the same.  Here is a link to a website you can use to conjugate verbs.  http://www.wordreference.com/conj/ESverbs.asp?v=llamar

I do not think that you can use the conditional with the present tense.  Someone please correct me if I am wrong.  With the present you would use the future.

Te digo que te llamaré  - I tell you that I will call you.

Here are some examples with the past.

Te dijo que yo te Llamaría  - I told you that I would call you

Te dijo que él te Llamaría  - I told you that he would call you

Los dijo que me llamarías  - I told them that you would call me

Lo dijo que nos llamarían  - I told him that they would call us

te dijimos que la llamaríamos  - we told you that we would call her.

Please let me know if all this pronounce are unclear

stevestrv, depende de lo que quieres decir, creo. Por ejemplo esta es una frase donde hay presente y condicional y creo que esta correcta:

te juro que me casaría contigo si mi madre lo permitiese.

Aquí se usa el condicional porque la madre no lo permite, entonces se habla de algo que no se puede realizar.

fabirzio

I agree with you that the sentence “te juro que me casaría contigo si mi madre lo permitiese“ (I swear to you that I would marry you if my mother allowed it) starts with the present and includes the conditional.  The only thing that I would like to point out is that the used of the conditional here is tied to the word permitiese which is conjugated as the imperfect subjective which belongs to the group of past tenses.

Nebwis and Elemetraies

si mi madre lo permitiese which can also be written as si mi madre lo permitiera means if my mother would allow it if the fact is that my mother will not allow.  Permitir (to allow) is conjugated in the imperfect subjective.  One of the uses of the imperfect subjective is to express something which is contrary to fact.  You are not going to lean to use the subjective by reading one comment but I wanted you to understand this thread no the use conditional.  Although I would like to give you one more example to make it a little clearer.  You can say “si fuera tu me iría ahora.  (If I were you, I would leave now)  fuera is the imperfect subjective of ser – to be.  The imperfect subjective is used because I am not you so it is contrary to fact. Me Íra is the conditional of to verb irse to leave.

Correction    SpanishPod Team  Please read this thread. I do not want to give anyone incorrect information. 
Fabirzio the more I think about it, the more I think that you are correct.  I believe that you can use the conditional with the present tense when you express what would happen if thing were difference.  For example, I believe that you can say yo lo llamaría, pero no puedo  (I would call him but I can’t). But, I do not think you could say “Te digo que yo lo Llamaría” (I tell you that I would call him) unless possibly it is implied that I am not calling him because I can’t. 
I think you can also use the conditional with the present tense in a sentence like "No sé porque lo haría él" (I don’t know why he would do that).  I am sorry if my early post confused anyone
Steve

Yes, stevestrv, you're right, but there are also other situations when you can use present indicative + conditional. For example, when giving some advice:

Pienso que deberías comprarte un coche nuevo.

(I think you should buy a new car)

v shud get the meanings for the sentesces we want to know..its my opinion.

it may help learning too.

n get spanish words for the english ones.

it comprari be easier.

Stevestr,

I don't understand why you're using the present tense above in your examples - why wouldn't you be using the past tense with these?

You wrote: "Te dijo que yo te Llamaría  - I told you that I would call you" (in English it would translate to I tell you that I would call you which doesn't work) 

Why wouldn't it be:

Te dije que yo te llamaria 

translation would be "I told you that I would call you"

etc

Hey there Fabrizio,

with your example "Pienso que deberías comprarte un coche nuevo"

I don't think it's conditional - I think the subjunctive should be used because it's "Pienso que..." ???

Pienso que debieras comprarte un coche nuevo

(:

firtree

re: your first post, steve wrote...

But, I do not think you could say “Te digo que yo lo Llamaría”  :-)

and re the second, we havent heard from fabrizio in a while but I think that....

Pienso que is an overt statement of belief and hence takes the indicative. in english "i think", said with the correct intonation, can denote uncertainty but not (i believe) in spanish. linguistically spanish speakers "know" their own minds but are always in the dark about others.

However, i dont know if it is possible to use phrases like creo que with a subjunctive verb conjugation in order to indicate sarcasm or dramatic irony.  it would be a neat trick.

hope this helps.

firtree

When using creer or pensar in a positive sense (I mean without a leading “no”) you cannot used the subjective, even if you have doubt unless you are asking a question.  This has always bothered me but let me give you an example.

Creo que la comida está lista pero no estoy seguro.  

clearly I am not sure but the inductive is used.   I think in a question you can us either the subjective or the indicative. , for example you can say both

¿Crees que la comida esté lista?

¿Crees que la comida está lista?

I do not know if the two questions mean exactly the same and would appreciated it if some could clarify that.

On your other point you are correct, I should have said “Te dije que yo te llamaría”  Thank you

En este caso, para usar el subjuntivo en el verbo "estar" en el caso de la frase:

¿Crees que la comida esté lista?

Esta frase suena bastante rara (almenos, en España) basicamente por que, cuando preguntamos eso, lo hacemos así:

¿Está lista la comida?

O, si queremos usar el verbo Creer:

¿Crees que ya esta lista la comida?

En esos casos, usar subjuntivo es raro y a mi opinión no se usa.

Por otra parte, el subjuntivo seria ideal para casos como:

Cuando la comida esté lista, dímelo.

Espero haber aclarado algo... De todas formas, este tipo de frases son pequeños detalles que diferencian el uso del Español en Latino América y España.

Saludos.