Conditional mood facts for kids

The conditional mood is a way we use verbs to talk about things that might happen, or things that would happen if a certain condition was met. It's like saying "if this, then that."

For example, in English, when we say "If I had enough money, I would buy a house," the words "had" and "would buy" are in the conditional mood. They show that buying the house depends on having enough money.

Some languages have special verb forms just for the conditional mood. Others, like English and French, use a combination of words to create it. Sometimes, people might call it the "conditional tense," but it's actually a "mood" because it shows how likely or real an action is.

How the Conditional Mood Works

The conditional mood often appears in "if...then" sentences. These sentences usually have two parts:

• The "if" part (the condition): This describes what needs to happen.
• The "then" part (the result): This describes what would happen if the condition is met.

Sometimes, the conditional mood can also be used to talk about things that happened regularly in the past. For example, "When I was young, I would happily walk three miles to school every day."

This article will show you how the conditional mood is formed in different languages. For more details on how to build conditional sentences, you can look up Conditional sentence.

English Conditional Mood

English doesn't have a single special ending for verbs to show the conditional mood. Instead, we use the word would with the base form of another verb. For example, "I would sing."

Sometimes, other words like could, might, or should are used instead of would to add a slightly different meaning, like possibility or advice.

English has a few types of conditional sentences:

• Type 0 (Factual): For things that are always true. "When I feel well, I sing."
• Type 1 (Predictive): For things that might happen in the future. "If I feel well, I shall sing."
• Type 2 & 3 (Counterfactual): For things that are not real or didn't happen. This is where the conditional mood is most often used.

* "If I felt well, I would sing." (Talking about a present situation that isn't true) * "If I had felt well, I would have sung." (Talking about a past situation that didn't happen)

We can use the conditional mood in different time forms:

• Simple conditional: would sing
• Conditional progressive: would be singing (meaning an action that would be ongoing)
• Conditional perfect: would have sung (meaning an action that would have been completed)
• Conditional perfect progressive: would have been singing (meaning an ongoing action that would have been completed)

German Conditional Mood

In German, the conditional is often called Konjunktiv II. It can be formed in two main ways:

• By changing the vowel of the verb (like Ich käme meaning "I would come").
• By using the verb werden (to become) in its special form, plus the main verb's infinitive (like Ich würde kommen meaning "I would come").

For past conditional actions, German uses a form of Konjunktiv II with haben (to have) or sein (to be) in their special past forms.

• Ich hätte gesungen ("I would have sung")
• Sie wären gekommen ("They would have come")

Dutch Conditional Mood

Dutch uses a form of the verb zullen (similar to English shall) to create the conditional.

• Ik zou zingen ("I would sing")
• Ik zou gegaan zijn ("I would have gone")

Sometimes, the past perfect tense can also be used to express a similar idea.

Romance Languages

Many Romance languages (like French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian) developed their own conditional forms, even though their ancestor, Latin, didn't have a separate one. These forms often came from combining the infinitive of a verb with a form of the Latin verb habēre (meaning "to have"). Over time, these two words blended into one.

French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Occitan

In these languages, the conditional endings often come from the Latin verb habēre. For example, in Spanish, "I would sing" is cantaría.

Italian Conditional Mood

Modern Italian mostly uses one main way to form the conditional, which comes from combining the infinitive with a form of "to have."

• canterebbe (he would sing)

Older Italian had other ways, but they are not used much today.

Romanian Conditional Mood

Romanian uses a combination of a special short word (like aș, ai, ar) and the main verb.

• aș cânta (I would sing)

These short words come from old Latin forms of "to have."

Portuguese Conditional Mood

In Portuguese, the conditional is formed by adding endings (from the verb "to have") to the infinitive of the main verb.

• Eu falaria (I would speak)

However, in everyday spoken Portuguese, people often use a different way:

• Eu iria falar (I would go to speak, meaning I would speak)

The Portuguese conditional is also called the "past future" because it can talk about things that would happen under a condition, or actions that were planned for the future from a past point of view.

Spanish Conditional Mood

In Spanish, the conditional is made by adding specific endings (like -ía) to the infinitive of the verb. Even irregular verbs follow this pattern, though their stem might change a bit.

Slavic Languages

Russian Conditional Mood

In Russian, the conditional mood is formed by using the past tense of the verb along with the special word бы (pronounced "by"). This word usually comes after the verb.

• Я хотел бы петь (ja khotél by pet) means "I would like to sing."

Polish Conditional Mood

Polish also uses the word by with the past tense of the verb. This by often attaches to the first important word in the sentence, not always directly after the verb. It also takes the personal endings (like "I" or "you").

• śpiewał(a)bym or ja bym śpiewał(a) means "I would sing."

The word by can also combine with other words like "if" to form conditional phrases.

• gdybym śpiewał ("if I sang")

Uralic Languages

Hungarian Conditional Mood

Hungarian uses special endings for the conditional mood, like -na, -ne, -ná, and -né. These endings are placed right after the verb stem and before the ending that shows who is doing the action.

• ülnék (I would sit)

In Hungarian, if you use an "if" sentence, both parts of the sentence (the "if" part and the "then" part) use the conditional mood.

• Elmennék Olaszországba, ha lenne elég pénzem. (I would go to Italy if I had enough money.)

For past conditional actions, Hungarian uses the word volna (which is the conditional form of "to be").

• Elmentem volna Olaszországba, ha lett volna elég pénzem. (I would have gone to Italy if I had had enough money.)

Finnish Conditional Mood

Finnish also uses the conditional mood in both parts of an "if" sentence. It uses the special ending -isi-.

• Ostaisin talon, jos ansaitsisin paljon rahaa. (I would buy a house if I earned a lot of money.)

See also

In Spanish: Modo condicional para niños