Set Up a Playdate in Spanish

Quick Answer

¡Hola!Learn how to set up a playdate in this article and the lessons above! Specifically, learn how to do the following in Spanish:

• talk about playdates

• make excuses using the conditional

• be polite using the conditional

Vocabulary

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

Adjective

Spanish	English
exhausto	exhausted

examples
Después de dos horas, estarían exhaustos. After two hours, they'd be exhausted.

Nouns

Spanish	English
el cansancio	tiredness, exhaustion
el columpio	swing
el escondite	hide-and-go-seek, hideout
la mariposa	butterfly

examples
Irían corriendo hacia los columpios. They'd go running toward the swings.
Ellos se pondrían a jugar al escondite. They'd start playing hide-and-go-seek.
Se echaría a correr si ve una mariposa. She'd start running if she saw a butterfly.

Noun Phrases

Spanish	English
la búsqueda del tesoro	treasure hunt
la cita de juegos	playdate

examples
Haría una búsqueda del tesoro. I'd do a treasure hunt.
Si sale bien, organizaría otra cita de juegos. If it goes well, I'd organize another playdate.

Verbs

In this skill, you learn the following verbs!

Spanish	English
corretear	to run around
merendar	to have a snack (in the afternoon)

Verb Phrase

In this skill, you learn the following verb phrase!

Spanish	English
contar chistes	to tell jokes

Contar Chistes

Contar chistes(to tell jokes) is an -ar verb phrase that is regular in the conditional.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	contaría chistes	I would tell jokes
tú	contarías chistes	you would tell jokes	informal singular you
vos	contarías chistes	you would tell jokes	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	contaría chistes	he, she would tell jokes
usted	contaría chistes	you would tell jokes	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	contaríamos chistes	we would tell jokes
vosotros, vosotras	contaríais chistes	you would tell jokes	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	contarían chistes	they would tell jokes
ustedes	contarían chistes	you would tell jokes	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, give excuses, and give and ask for advice.

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, nosotras	-íamos
vosotros, vosotras	-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-
mantener	mantendr-
poder	podr-
poner	pondr-
querer	querr-
saber	sabr-
salir	saldr-
tener	tendr-
valer	valdr-
venir	vendr-

For example:

examples

Haría una búsqueda del tesoro.

I'd do a treasure hunt.

¿Podrías ayudarme a planearla?

Could you help me plan it?

Conditional Markers

Just like in English, there are words and phrases that let us know that we need to conjugate our verbs in the conditional tense. In these lessons, you learned the following conditional markers:

Spanish	English
Tú, en mi lugar	If you were me

Verbal Periphrasis in Spanish

What's Verbal Periphrasis?

In Spanish, a verbal periphrasis is a verbal construction made of two verb forms, a conjugated form and an impersonal form (an infinitive, a present participle, or a past participle). Verbal periphrasis is used in the informal future, the present progressive, and the perfect tenses. You can learn more about verbal periphrasis in this article.