The present conditional

The Present Conditional

To talk about what you "would" do—like how you would live if you suddenly became a billionaire—use the present conditional.

To form the conditional, drop the final -e of the infinitive and add the conditional endings. For -are verbs, the characteristic a changes to e (comprare uses the stem comprer-):

PronounVerbEnding
iocomprerei-ei
tucompreresti-esti
lui/leicomprerebbe-ebbe
noicompreremmo-emmo
voicomprereste-este
lorocomprerebbero-ebbero
I would buy a private helicopter.
Io comprerei un elicottero privato.
Would you buy a very big boat?
Compreresti una barca molto grande?
A billionaire would not work every day.
Un miliardario non lavorerebbe ogni giorno.

Regular -ere verbs take the same endings:

Would you take the helicopter every morning?
Prenderesti l'elicottero ogni mattina?
We would absolutely accept this option.
Accetteremmo assolutamente questa opzione.

Conjugating -ire Verbs

Verbs ending in -ire (like dormire) take the exact same endings, but their stem keeps the i.

We would not sleep in the boat in winter.
Non dormiremmo nella barca in inverno.

Living in Luxury

Use the conditional to imagine a life of wealth. You might fly an elicottero (helicopter), hire an autista (driver), or simply live in a villa.

I would live in the villa with the whole family.
Abiterei nella villa con tutta la famiglia.
The billionaire would use his helicopter.
Il miliardario userebbe il suo elicottero.
The private driver would wait in front of the door.
L'autista privato aspetterebbe davanti alla porta.
They would love to live in luxury.
Amerebbero abitare nel lusso.