Forming the Conditional | Catalan Grammar

The Catalan simple conditional is strikingly regular: take the same stem used for the future and add -ia, -ies, -ia, -íem, -íeu, -ien. Thus parlar → parlaria and irregular tenir → tindria. The endings resemble those of the imperfect of verbs such as voler (volia), but the conditional is built on the infinitive or future stem and expresses a different viewpoint. Once the forms are secure, Uses of the Conditional explains their meanings in context.

One set of endings for every conjugation

All three conjugations use the same six endings. Regular -ar and -ir verbs keep the full infinitive. Many -re verbs lose the final unstressed e, just as they do in the future: perdre → perdria.

Person	Ending	cantar	perdre	servir
jo	-ia	cantaria	perdria	serviria
tu	-ies	cantaries	perdries	serviries
ell, ella, vostè	-ia	cantaria	perdria	serviria
nosaltres	-íem	cantaríem	perdríem	serviríem
vosaltres	-íeu	cantaríeu	perdríeu	serviríeu
ells, elles, vostès	-ien	cantarien	perdrien	servirien

Jo hi aniria encantada, però demà treballo.

I would gladly go, but I work tomorrow.

Tu què triaries: mar o muntanya?

What would you choose: the sea or the mountains?

Nosaltres no vendríem la casa per aquest preu.

We wouldn’t sell the house for that price.

The first and third persons singular are identical: jo cantaria, ella cantaria. Catalan normally omits subject pronouns, so context identifies the person; use jo or ella when a contrast would otherwise be unclear.

Stress and spelling

The stressed vowel is the i of the ending in every person. In -ia, -ies, and -ien, ordinary spelling rules require no accent: cantaria, cantaries, cantarien. First- and second-person plural must carry an acute accent: cantaríem, cantaríeu. Omitting it is a spelling error, not an optional simplification.

Vosaltres preferiríeu quedar-vos a prop de l’estació?

Would you prefer to stay near the station?

Elles arribarien abans si sortissin ara.

They would arrive earlier if they left now.

Spelling changes that belong only to present-tense endings generally do not appear here because the conditional uses the future stem. For example, començar → començaria keeps ç because it remains before a, while pagar → pagaria needs no u: the following a already preserves hard g.

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Learn each irregular verb as a future stem, not as two unrelated lists. Once you know tindré, the conditional tindria follows automatically: tindr- + -ia.

Regular stems and the -re pattern

The simplest formula is “infinitive + ending,” but it needs one refinement. Infinitives ending in -re usually drop their final e before both future and conditional endings.

Infinitive	Conditional stem	Example
parlar	parlar-	parlaria
témer	témer-	temeria
dormir	dormir-	dormiria
perdre	perdr-	perdria
prendre	prendr-	prendria

Notice that the accent of an infinitive such as témer is not copied into temeria: adding the ending changes the word’s stress and the resulting spelling follows the normal rules.

Sense el mapa, us perdríeu pels carrers del centre.

Without the map, you would get lost in the streets downtown.

La Núria prendria un cafè, però ja és massa tard.

Núria would have a coffee, but it is already too late.

Irregular future and conditional stems

The irregularity is in the stem; the six conditional endings never change. These high-frequency stems deserve direct memorization.

Infinitive	Stem	Conditional
anar	anir-	aniria
cabre	cabr-	cabria
caldre	caldr-	caldria
dir	dir-	diria
dur	dur-	duria
fer	far-	faria
haver	haur-	hauria
poder	podr-	podria
saber	sabr-	sabria
tenir	tindr-	tindria
valer	valdr-	valdria
venir	vindr-	vindria
veure	veur-	veuria
viure	viur-	viuria
voler	voldr-	voldria

Em podries donar un cop de mà amb aquestes caixes?

Could you give me a hand with these boxes?

No sabria dir-te quant trigarà.

I couldn’t tell you how long it will take.

There is no logical shortcut that predicts every stem. The productive strategy is to pair future and conditional forms—faré/faria, podré/podria, tindré/tindria—and memorize the relatively short set.

Negation and weak pronouns

The conditional is finite, so unstressed object and adverbial pronouns go before it: t’ho diria, hi aniríem, no en comprarien. They do not attach after the conditional in contemporary standard Catalan.

T’ho explicaria ara, però no tenim prou temps.

I would explain it to you now, but we don’t have enough time.

With a following infinitive, a pronoun belonging to that infinitive may climb or remain attached: Ho podria fer / Podria fer-ho; Ens hi voldríem quedar / Voldríem quedar-nos-hi.

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Do not confuse an attached infinitive pronoun with an impossible conditional attachment: podria explicar-t’ho is correct because -t’ho attaches to explicar; t’ho podria explicar is also correct.

What the form is—and is not

The simple conditional has one word: parlaria. The conditional perfect has hauria + participle: hauria parlat. A conditional progressive such as estaria treballant is possible when an action is specifically viewed in progress, but English “would be” does not automatically require it. Nor does vaig parlar contain any conditional meaning: it is the periphrastic past “I spoke.”

Mini-dialogue

—Vindríeu a sopar divendres? —Sí, hi vindríem de bon grat, però hauríem de marxar d’hora.

—Would you come to dinner on Friday? —Yes, we’d gladly come, but we would have to leave early.

—Us aniria bé a les vuit? —Perfecte; així arribaríem sense presses.

—Would eight work for you? —Perfect; that way we’d arrive without rushing.

The dialogue shows three irregular stems—vindr-, haur-, anir-—and the regular stem arribar-; all take the same endings.

Regional and register notes

The standard conditional endings and major irregular stems are shared across Central Catalan, Valencian, Balearic, Northwestern, Northern, and Alguerese standards. Spoken realizations vary phonetically, but the standard written forms above apply across IEC and AVL usage. Valencian vinguera in si vinguera is an imperfect subjunctive, not an alternative conditional; the result remains vindria.

Common Mistakes

1. Copying a Spanish irregular stem.

❌ Jo tendria més paciència.

Incorrect—the Catalan stem of tenir is tindr-.

✅ Jo tindria més paciència.

I would have more patience.

2. Keeping the final e of an -re infinitive.

❌ Perderíem massa temps.

Incorrect—the unstressed e of perdre drops before the ending.

✅ Perdríem massa temps.

We would waste too much time.

3. Omitting the accent in the first- or second-person plural.

❌ Vosaltres cantarieu l’última cançó?

Incorrect spelling—the stressed í needs an acute accent.

✅ Vosaltres cantaríeu l’última cançó?

Would you sing the last song?

4. Attaching the clitic to the finite conditional.

❌ Diria-te la veritat.

Incorrect in contemporary standard Catalan.

✅ Et diria la veritat.

I would tell you the truth.

5. Using a progressive merely because English has “would be.”

❌ Amb una oficina més a prop, estaria treballant més tranquil.

Unnatural if the intended meaning is simply a hypothetical working situation.

✅ Amb una oficina més a prop, treballaria més tranquil.

With an office closer by, I would work more calmly.

Key Takeaways

Use the future stem plus -ia, -ies, -ia, -íem, -íeu, -ien. Preserve the accents in -íem and -íeu, memorize the small family of irregular stems together with their future forms, and place weak pronouns before the conditional unless they attach to a following infinitive.

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