The conditional tense is often used to make highly polite requests or to imagine hypothetical scenarios. While most verbs form the conditional by adding endings directly to the full infinitive, a few common verbs have irregular stems.
Irregular Conditional Stems
The verbs fazer (to do/make), dizer (to say), and trazer (to bring) drop the letters -ze- from their infinitive to create a shortened stem: far-, dir-, and trar-.
You then add the standard conditional endings (-ria, -rias, -ria, -ríamos, -riam).
| Pronoun | fazer (far-) | dizer (dir-) | trazer (trar-) |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | faria | diria | traria |
| tu | farias | dirias | trarias |
| ele / ela / você | faria | diria | traria |
| nós | faríamos | diríamos | traríamos |
| eles / elas / vocês | fariam | diriam | trariam |
Fazer in Polite Requests
In high-end customer service or hospitality settings, the conditional of fazer is extremely useful. You can use it to talk about what someone would do, or to frame instructions as exceptionally polite requests using the phrase faria o favor de (would you do the favor of).
| What would the reception do for me? | O que é que a receção faria por mim? |
| What request would the guest make now? | Que pedido faria o hóspede agora? |
| We would not make that request at the reception. | Nós não faríamos esse pedido na receção. |
| Would you do the favor of lighting the fireplace? | Vocês fariam o favor de acender a lareira? |
Dizer and Trazer
Dizer and trazer follow the exact same pattern. You will often use these to hypothesize about what a client might say, or to politely ask if someone would bring something to a room.
| The reception would not say that to the guest. | A receção não diria isso ao hóspede. |
| Would you bring the champagne to the room? | O senhor traria o champanhe ao quarto? |
| Would you say that the bathrobe is clean? | A senhora diria que o roupão está limpo? |
| I would do that and bring the bathrobe. | Eu faria isso e traria o roupão. |