Il Condizionale Presente Flashcards
When do you use the condizionale presente?
Expresses what would you do or what would happen under certain circumstances. Also used to express polite requests
What tense endings does the conditional tense use?
Uses the same verb stems as the future tense, only the endings are different
What are the endings?
ei esti ebbe emmo este ebbero
What are the future verb stems?
For “are” verbs, change the “a” to an “e”, drop the ending “e” and add the conditional endings
For “ere” and “ire” verbs, drop the ending “e” and add the conditional endings
How do conjugate parlare?
Parlare
parlerei
parleresti
parlerebbe
parleremmo
parlereste
parlerebbero
How do you conjugate leggere?
Leggere
leggerei
leggeresti
leggerebbe
leggeremmo
leggereste
leggerebbo
How do you conjugate dormer?
Dormire
dormirei
domiresti
dormirebbe
dormiremmo
dormireste
dormirebbero
Translate “In Florence we would always speak Italian.”
A Firenze parleremmo sempre l’italiano.
Translate “ I would sleep here, bu there’s no vacancy.”
Dormirei qui, ma non c’è una camera disponibile.
As with the future tense, what special change do you make to the “are” verbs when conjugating for the conditional tense?
Change the “a” in “are” to “e”
What are the spelling changes for verbs ending in “care”, “gare”, “ciare” and “giare”?
Verbs ending in “care” and “gare” add an “h” in the conditional to keep the hard “c” and “g” sounds, “pagherei” and “giocherei”.
Verbs ending in “ciare” and “giare” drop the “I” in the conditional, “mangerei” and “comincerei”.
How do you handle the irregular verbs in the conditional tense?
Verbs with irregular stems in the future tense use the same irregular stems in the conditional.
What is another way to use the conditional tense?
Use the conditional tense to make a polite request or to soften a question or demand.
What word do you use to explain why a conditional action might not be carried out?
Use the word “ma” (“but”). “I would read the map before leaving, but I can’t find it.” “Leggerei la mappa prima di partire, ma non la trovo.”
Note that in English the word “would” can also mean “used to”, in the sense of past habitual actions. What tense do you use in Italian to express past, habitual actions?
Th imperfect tense
