Conditional Tense Overview

The Portuguese conditional -- called condicional in modern European Portuguese grammars, and futuro do pretérito ("future of the past") in Brazilian Portuguese -- is the tense of what would happen. It corresponds almost exactly to English would + verb: I would go, I would say, I would bring. But Portuguese uses it in five distinct situations that English splits across different constructions, so understanding the range of the conditional is essential for anyone working above A2 level. It is also one of the easiest tenses to form, because it shares stems with the simple future: if you know falarei, you already know falaria.

A note on register you will want to keep in mind from the start: in everyday European Portuguese speech, the conditional is often replaced by the imperfect indicative for polite requests and hypothetical statements. Podia ajudar-me? is far more common than Poderia ajudar-me?, and Se pudesse, ia contigo is far more common than Se pudesse, iria contigo. The conditional lives more on the page than in the ear -- but it lives, and it carries a weight that the imperfect cannot.

Formation: stem + -ia endings

The conditional is built like the future: take the infinitive (or the contracted stem for the three irregulars) and attach the conditional endings. The endings are identical to the imperfect endings of -er and -ir verbs, which is how many learners first remember them.

The nós form carries a mandatory written accent on the í -- falaríamos, comeríamos, faríamos -- and without it the word would be misstressed. This is the only form in the conditional with an accent.

Regular paradigm: falar (to speak)

Regular paradigms for the three classes

Notice that the first-person and third-person singular forms are identical (falaria). Context -- or an explicit subject -- tells you who is meant. This mirrors the same pattern in the imperfect.

The three irregular stems

The same three verbs that are irregular in the future are irregular in the conditional, using the same contracted stems.

Every other verb in Portuguese -- including notoriously irregular ones like ser, ir, ter, vir, pôr, haver, saber, poder -- is perfectly regular in the conditional. Seria, iria, teria, viria, poria, haveria, saberia, poderia. See Irregular Conditional Forms for the three that matter.

The five uses of the conditional

Use 1: Hypothetical situations

The conditional is the consequence clause of a hypothetical (if...) sentence. The if clause carries a past subjunctive; the conditional tells us what would happen.

The last example shows the colloquial substitution: in casual European Portuguese, comprávamos (imperfect) stands in for compraríamos (conditional). Native speakers do this routinely. Both are correct, but the imperfect is what you will hear on the street.

See Hypothetical Conditional for the full pattern with if clauses and the past subjunctive.

Use 2: Polite requests

The conditional softens a request, making it more deferential than the present indicative. English does the same: Could you help me? is politer than Can you help me?

In everyday speech, especially in cafes, shops, and restaurants, the imperfect of poder and querer is the colloquial equivalent: Podia ajudar-me? Queria um café. Both are polite; the conditional is slightly more elevated. See Conditional for Polite Requests and Imperfect for Politeness for the full comparison.

Use 3: Future-in-the-past

When the main clause is in the past, a future event anchored to that past moment takes the conditional. The logic is: the event was "future" at the moment someone thought, said, or did something earlier. English uses would the same way: He said he would come.

This use is fully productive in both speech and writing. It has no colloquial substitution -- you cannot replace it with the imperfect without changing the meaning. Ele disse que vinha amanhã is also heard, but it feels looser and more narrative.

Use 4: Probability / conjecture about the past

The mirror image of the future of probability. Where the simple future hedges a claim about the present, the conditional hedges a claim about the past.

As with the future of probability, the register is neutral to literary. In everyday speech, speakers often prefer devia ser, devia ter, se calhar era and similar alternatives. The conditional version is more elegant and appears often in reflective narration, written commentary, and careful speech.

Use 5: Softening statements and opinions

The conditional hedges an opinion, making it feel less assertive and more considered. English uses I would say, I'd think, I'd put it that way. Portuguese uses the conditional the same way.

The colloquial substitution: imperfect for conditional

This is the single most important register fact about the conditional in European Portuguese. In casual speech, uses 1 and 2 -- hypothetical situations and polite requests -- are routinely expressed with the imperfect indicative instead of the conditional.

Both columns are fully grammatical. The right-hand column is what you will hear in almost every informal exchange -- at the cafe, in text messages, between friends. The left-hand column is what you will read in a formal email, a newspaper, or a literary text. Learners often overuse the conditional in speech because textbooks do not emphasize the substitution strongly enough.

Both are polite. The colloquial version sounds natural at a family dinner; the formal version is what a waiter would use to a guest.

Mesoclisis in the conditional

Like the simple future, the conditional allows mesoclisis -- the placement of an object pronoun inside the verb, between stem and ending. The structure is identical: stem + clitic + ending, joined by two hyphens.

Proclisis triggers cancel mesoclisis, exactly as in the simple future.

Mesoclisis in the conditional is even more formal-sounding than in the future. In speech, it is almost entirely absent; in writing, it appears in literary prose, legal documents, and elevated formal texts. See Mesoclisis.

Comparison with English

The conditional maps almost one-to-one onto English would + verb, but English splits the same semantic territory across different devices:

For the first, third, and fifth uses, English would is the direct match. For polite requests, English prefers could or would + modal. For past probability, English leans on must have + past participle. Portuguese does all five with the same tense, which is one reason the conditional feels so central to the language.

Common Mistakes

Dizer, fazer, trazer keep their contracted stems in the conditional, just as in the future. Fazeria and dizeria do not exist in standard Portuguese.

In everyday speech, hypothetical consequences commonly take the imperfect instead of the conditional. Overusing the conditional in casual chat makes a learner sound stiff.

A hypothetical if clause pairs with the conditional or the colloquial imperfect. The present indicative does not work here.

The nós form always carries a written accent on the í: falaríamos, comeríamos, partiríamos, faríamos, diríamos, traríamos. Omitting it changes the stress and spelling.

For reported speech anchored in the past, use the conditional (viria) or the imperfect-plus-infinitive paraphrase (ia chegar). The plain present with a past reporting verb creates an ambiguous or ungrammatical feel.

With modal-like verbs (poder, querer, dever) plus an infinitive, the clitic typically attaches to the infinitive (ajudar-me), not to the modal. Mesoclisis on the modal (poder-me-ia) is extremely formal but grammatical. Enclisis on the conditional alone (poderia-me) is not standard.

Key takeaways

• Formation: infinitive (or contracted stem for dizer, fazer, trazer) + -ia, -ias, -ia, -íamos, -iam. The nós form is always accented.
• Five uses: hypothetical situations, polite requests, future-in-the-past, past probability, softening opinions.
• Only three irregular stems: dir-, far-, trar-. All others use the plain infinitive.
• Colloquial substitution: in casual speech, uses 1, 2, and 5 often appear as the imperfect indicative instead of the conditional. Podia ajudar-me? and Se pudesse, ia are everyday; Poderia and iria are more formal.
• Mesoclisis is possible in affirmative clauses without proclisis triggers: dir-te-ia, far-lhe-íamos. Very formal.
• English would is the closest match, but Portuguese concentrates five uses into a single tense.
• For each use in depth, see the dedicated pages: Regular Forms, Irregular Forms, Polite Requests, Hypothetical.