Why can't you use si in the condishional.

Question

I was taking notes in my Spanish class and she said that si (if) can never be used in the condishional tense, but she didn't know why. What is the reasoning behind this and is this true?

Edit this question was written completely wrong from what I mean. I will repost with the correct question.

I suspect she was on the pishional - lagartijaverde, May 23, 2011

conditional :) - FELIZ77, May 23, 2011

Answer 1

"Si tuviera un dineral, te compraría un anillo." (If I had a lot of money, I would buy you a ring) .Many times when discussing grammar, this type of sentence is called a conditional sentence, but it´s actually a combination of two different tenses. The first phrase is pretérito imperfecto, and the second is condicional. It´s the second part where "Si" cannot be used. In the first part, "Si" is used all the time.

And of course the position of the phrases can be reversed: "Te compraría un anillo si tuviera un dineral."

This is how I understood it Julian:) - FELIZ77, May 23, 2011

Great answer, but Feliz has the correct sp. Conditional :) - NancyGrace, May 23, 2011

Answer 2

You can say :

Iría a España... si tuviera suficiente dinero

= I would go to Spain if I had enough money

or

...Si tuviera suficiente dinero...iría a España

=If I had enough money I would go to Spain

Here the conditional: ''Iría'' is in the same sentence with the word if but the conditional does not immediately follow the word if Tuviera is from the word tener = to have and is in the imperfect subjunctive which, as far as I know, always follows the conditional

I do not know if what your teacher said is correct or whether she simply meant that she thought that the condtional did not follow the word if

I hope that helps

Answer 3

The tense is called "conditional" (or "condicional" in Spanish). The conditional can be used with "si" means "whether", e.g. no sabía si vendrían o no. However, in conditional sentences like "If... then...", the condition is an assumption that can be possible (and therefore declared) or imaginary (and therefore a mental representation that cannot be declared), but not a prediction, which is what the future and conditional tenses do.