Portuguese 5.2. Simple Conditional Tense

The simple conditional tense in Portuguese is used to describe a hypothetical situation, express wishes, or give advice. The simple conditional tense in Portuguese is similar in its use to the simple conditional tense in English, e.g., “I would do the laundry if I had time.”

Conjugation

The regular verb conjugation is the same for all verb endings and is formed by adding the conjugation ending to the infinitive rather than to the stem.

	-ar ending e.g., falar	-er ending e.g., comer	-ir ending e.g., partir
eu	falaria	comeria	partiria
ele/ela/você	falaria	comeria	partiria
nós	falaríamos	comeríamos	partiríamos
eles/elas/vocês	falariam	comeriam	partiriam

Irregular Verbs

The verbs “dizer” (to say), “fazer” (to do), and “trazer” (to bring) change their stem to “dir-,” “far-,” and “trar-,” respectively, to form the simple conditional tense conjugation. These three verbs are irregular and must be memorized.

	dizer dir-	fazer far-	trazer trar-
eu	diria	faria	traria
ele/ela/você	diria	faria	traria
nós	diríamos	faríamos	traríamos
eles/elas/vocês	diriam	fariam	trariam

Examples

Below are some examples that use the simple conditional tense.

Eu viajaria todos os anos se tivesse dinheiro.	I would travel every year if I had money.
Se eu fosse você, não iria para a academia hoje.	If I were you, I wouldn’t go to the gym today.
Se eu tivesse muito dinheiro, compraria um palácio.	If I had a lot of money, I would buy a palace.
Você poderia estudar mais horas para o exame.	You could study more hours for the exam.
Você poderia me passar a pimenta?	Could you pass me the pepper?
Viveríamos em uma cidade pequena?	Would we live in a small city?
Eles dormiriam o dia todo se não tivessem trabalho.	They would sleep all day if they didn’t have work.
Eu diria a verdade se me perguntassem.	I would tell the truth if they asked me.

Next: Future Subjunctive

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