Say What You'd Do in Spanish

Quick Answer

¡Hola!Learn how to say what you’d do in Spanish in this article and the lessons above! Specifically, learn how to do the following in Spanish:

• discuss what one would do

• give explanations and excuses

• use the conditional tense

Vocabulary

Let's start off with the vocab words in these lessons!

Nouns

Spanish	English
el apoyo	support
el evento	event
el favor	favor
la mentira	lie
el puesto	position

examples
No contaría con suficientes apoyos. I wouldn't have enough support.
Iría al evento, pero es muy tarde. I'd go to the event, but it's really late.
¿Podrías hacerme un favor? Could you do me a favor?

Plurality Tip

You might have noticed that the example above used the word apoyos. How can we say apoyos if support is uncountable?! Countability does not necessarily transfer between languages. For example, apoyo in Spanish is countable, whereas support is uncountable in English.

Verbs

In this skill, you learn the following verbs!

Acabar

Acabar(to be over, to finish) is an -ar verb that is regular in the conditional.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	acabaría	I would be over
tú	acabarías	you would be over	informal singular you
vos	acabarías	you would be over	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	acabaría	he, she would be over
usted	acabaría	you would be over	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	acabaríamos	we would be over
vosotros, vosotras	acabaríais	you would be over	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	acabarían	they would be over
ustedes	acabarían	you would be over	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Enfrentar

Enfrentar(to face) is an -ar verb that is regular in the conditional.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	enfrentaría	I would face
tú	enfrentarías	you would face	informal singular you
vos	enfrentarías	you would face	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	enfrentaría	he, she would face
usted	enfrentaría	you would face	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	enfrentaríamos	we would face
vosotros, vosotras	enfrentaríais	you would face	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	enfrentarían	they would face
ustedes	enfrentarían	you would face	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Permitirse

Permitirse(to afford) is an -ir pronominal verb that is regular in the conditional.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	me permitiría	I would afford
tú	te permitirías	you would afford	informal singular you
vos	te permitirías	you would afford	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	se permitiría	he, she would afford
usted	se permitiría	you would afford	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	nos permitiríamos	we would afford
vosotros, vosotras	os permitiríais	you would afford	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	se permitirían	they would afford
ustedes	se permitirían	you would afford	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

The Simple Conditional

The conditional tense in Spanish el condicionalo el pospretéritois used to talk about hypothetical situations and probabilities as well as to make polite requests.

In the Spanish conditional tense, both regular and irregular verbs use the same set of endings, and any stems that are irregular in the simple future are also irregular in the conditional.

Regular Conditional Forms

To form the conditional tense with regular -ar, -er, and -ir verbs, simply add the conditional endings to the end of the infinitive:

Spanish Conditional Endings

Subject	Conditional Ending
yo	-ía
tú, vos	-ías
usted, él, ella	-ía
nosotros	-íamos
vosotros	-íais
ustedes, ellos, ellas	-ían

Do these verb endings look familiar? They should! They’re the same as the imperfect tense endings for -er and -ir verbs.

Irregular Conditionals

As we stated before, any stems that are irregular in the simple future are also irregular in the conditional. The irregular stems in the conditional are:

Infinitive	Conditional Stem
caber	cabr-
decir	dir-
haber	habr-
hacer	har-
poder	podr-
poner	pondr-
querer	querr-
saber	sabr-
salir	saldr-
tener	tendr-
valer	valdr-
venir	vendr-

For example:

examples
Harían la tarea, pero no tienen Internet. They'd do the homework, but they don't have Internet.
No, porque no me cabría en casa. No, because it wouldn't fit in my house.
No querría tener que llegar a ese punto. I wouldn't want to get to that point.

examples

Harían la tarea, pero no tienen Internet.

They'd do the homework, but they don't have Internet.