Conditional Tense Past or Present?

Question

I am having a difficult time understanding the conditional tense. Is this tense referring to the past or present?

Hi, please fill out your profile. Thanks. - rac1, Sep 6, 2014

Please fill out your profile so that we may better help you .Bienvenido al fora , buena suerte amiga. - ray76, Sep 7, 2014

Answer 1

The Spanish conditional can be used in past, present and future tenses.

Using Gringo´s example:

I would do that .... Lo haría (present / future conditional)

I would have done that .... Lo hubiera/hubiese hecho (past conditional)

I did not address the past as it is one of the "perfect tenses" and I thought the question was about the indicative tenses. - gringojrf, Sep 6, 2014

Answer 2

Good question. I think it refers more to the future, but an uncertain future, one of speculation.

I would do that .....

Answer 3

Excellent review of the conditional:

http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/courses/condic.htm

Highly edited- so I suggest reviewing the link:

Usage. There are several ways in which the conditional is used in Spanish:

To indicate future time within the past. (Remember that the conditional is a combination of future stem with imperfect endings.)

To indicate conjecture or probability in past time (roughly an equivalent of probablemente plus the imperfect).

To indicate deference or softening of a statement or request.

To indicate something hypothetical (in present or future time).

An unreal or contrary-to-fact condition is one which will not come about or is viewed as being completely hypothetical. In this case, the “if” clause in normally in a past subjunctive tense, and the main verb is in a conditional tense.