The present conditional

We use the conditional to say what we would do or what would happen. To conjugate the verb according to the subject that performs the action:

• • drop the final -e of the infinitive;
  • for -are verbs, change the -a of the infinitive to -e (practically speaking, –are and –ere verbs share the same conjugation);
  • add the following endings:

Exceptions and particular cases

• • • Verbs in -care and -gare add an h so as to keep the same sound, as in cercare: io cercherei un lavoro lontano da casa.
    • Verbs in -ciare and -giare drop the i of the infinitive, as in cominciare: io comincerei a lavorare il 3 aprile.
    • These short verbs in -are do not change the -a to -e:  dare →  darei; fare →  farei;  stare →  starei.
    • Many verbs conjugate irregularly in the conditional:

The simple future

Good news: the future tense uses the same root forms as the conditional tense, just different endings. We use the future tense to say what we will do, what we are going to do, or what will happen.

Verbs that are irregular in the present conditional will be similarly irregular in the future tense. Consider the two conjugations side-by-side:

The past conditional

The past conditional is very easy to form: simply use the present conditional of avere and essere and then add the past participle. This form is analogous to would have in English (I would have wanted, we would have come, etc.)