The Conditional Mood ("Would")
To talk about dreams, fantasies, or hypothetical situations, Croatian uses the conditional mood. This is the equivalent of using "would" in English.
To form the conditional, you need two parts:
- A special conditional helper verb (an old form of biti).
- The l-participle (the exact same active past participle you already use to form the past tense).
Here are the helper verbs for each pronoun:
| Pronoun | Auxiliary |
|---|---|
| ja | bih |
| ti | bi |
| on / ona / ono | bi |
| mi | bismo |
| vi | biste |
| oni / one / ona | bi |
Because these helper verbs are clitics, they typically take the second position in the sentence, right after the subject or the first main word.
| I would fulfill your wish. | Ja bih ispunio tvoju želju. |
| We would imagine a miracle in this world. | Mi bismo zamislili čudo u ovom svijetu. |
If you drop the subject pronoun (which is very common), the sentence can start directly with the l-participle, followed immediately by the helper verb.
| I would travel everywhere and stay forever. | Putovao bih svugdje i ostao zauvijek. |
Hypothetical "If" Clauses
To say "If [something happened]...", use the phrase kada bi followed by the l-participle.
| If he came, we would fulfill three wishes. | Kada bi on došao, ispunili bismo tri želje. |
| If a dog had wings, he would fly. | Kada bi pas imao krila, letio bi. |
Questions and Negation
To ask a yes/no question in the conditional, start the sentence with the helper verb followed by the question particle li (for example, Biste li...).
| Would you live forever in this world? | Biste li vi živjeli zauvijek na ovom svijetu? |
To make the conditional negative, simply place ne in front of the helper verb. Unlike most clitics, these negated forms (ne bih, ne bi, etc.) are strong enough to stand at the very beginning of a sentence.
| I would not be able to imagine that miracle. | Ne bih mogao zamisliti to čudo. |