Conditional for Hypothetical Situations

The conditional's headline job is to describe what would happen in an imaginary situation: If I had money, I would buy a house. In Portuguese, this kind of sentence has a fixed grammatical shape — and a second, fully colloquial shape that Brazilians use constantly in speech. Knowing both is the difference between understanding a textbook and understanding your friends.

The canonical pattern: se + imperfect subjunctive + conditional

The textbook structure for an "unreal" or contrary-to-fact hypothetical is:

se + imperfect subjunctive (the condition) → conditional (the result)

The se clause sets up an imagined world using the imperfect subjunctive (tivesse, fosse, pudesse), and the main clause states what would follow, using the conditional.

Notice that the order is flexible: you can lead with the se clause (Se eu tivesse..., eu compraria...) or with the result (Eu compraria... se eu tivesse...). The verb forms do not change.

For the full mechanics of these contrary-to-fact sentences — including past hypotheticals like "if I had known" — see contrary-to-fact se-clauses. This page focuses on the conditional's role as the result.

Why the imperfect subjunctive in the if-clause?

The imperfect subjunctive (tivesse, fosse, pudesse) is the Portuguese mood for things that are not real — imagined, hypothetical, or contrary to the facts. When you say se eu tivesse dinheiro, you are signaling "I don't actually have money, but imagine I did." The conditional in the result clause then carries that same unreality forward: eu compraria = "in that imagined world, I would buy." The two forms are partners. One sets up the hypothesis, the other states the consequence, and both live in the realm of the imaginary rather than the factual. Once you feel this pairing, you can generate any "if...would" sentence without translating word by word.

The colloquial Brazilian variant: imperfect indicative for the conditional

Here is the single most important thing this page teaches, and something most textbooks bury or omit. In everyday spoken Brazilian Portuguese, the conditional in the result clause is routinely replaced by the imperfect indicative:

Compare the two side by side:

Both sentences mean exactly the same thing. The comprava version is not "wrong" or "lazy" in speech — it is the default for the overwhelming majority of Brazilians in casual conversation. The compraria version sounds more careful, more formal, more "correct," and is obligatory in formal writing, exams, journalism, and official documents.

Note in the last example that fazia is the imperfect indicative of fazer standing in for the conditional faria. The se clause stays in the imperfect subjunctive in all these versions — only the result clause swaps.

When NOT to use the imperfect-indicative shortcut

The substitution is for speech and casual writing only. Use the full conditional when:

• You are writing anything formal — an email to a stranger, a cover letter, an essay, a report.
• You are sitting a Portuguese exam (the CELPE-Bras and school grammar both expect the conditional).
• You want to sound polished, distant, or deliberately careful.

Mixing them — using comprava in a formal essay — reads as a register error to an educated Brazilian, the way "if I had money I'm gonna buy a house" would jar an English reader.

A note on "se eu fosse você"

The single most frequent hypothetical you will ever hear is the advice formula se eu fosse você — "if I were you." It is so common that it is almost a fixed phrase, and it takes either the conditional or the colloquial imperfect in the result, exactly like every other hypothetical.

English speakers should note that Portuguese says fosse ("were") here, matching the English subjunctive were rather than was — one of the rare places where careful English grammar and Portuguese grammar line up perfectly.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The canonical hypothetical is se + imperfect subjunctive → conditional: Se eu tivesse..., eu compraria....
• Never put the conditional in the se clause — that mirrors the English ban on "if I would have."
• In casual speech, Brazilians replace the conditional result with the imperfect indicative: Se eu tivesse..., eu comprava.... Same meaning, more natural.
• Keep the full conditional in formal writing and exams; the imperfect-indicative swap belongs to speech.