Imagine a world where a rogue artificial intelligence has taken over. When analyzing what went wrong, you will often need to talk about how things would be right now if we had done things differently in the past. To bridge this gap between past mistakes and present consequences, Portuguese uses a mixed conditional sentence.
The Past Condition: Se + Mais-Que-Perfeito do Conjuntivo
To describe an unreal or hypothetical situation in the past, start your "if" clause with se (if) followed by the Past Perfect Subjunctive (Mais-Que-Perfeito do Conjuntivo).
You form this compound tense by using the Imperfect Subjunctive of the auxiliary verb ter (tivesse, tivesses, tivesse, tivéssemos, tivessem) plus the past participle of your main verb (such as programado or apagado).
The Present Consequence: Condicional Simples or Pretérito Imperfeito
To describe the present outcome of that hypothetical past action, the result clause uses the Conditional (Condicional Simples) or the Imperfect (Pretérito Imperfeito).
The Conditional is formed by taking the full infinitive of the verb and adding its specific endings: -ia, -ias, -ia, -íamos, -iam (e.g., seria, protegeria).
Let's see how these two halves pair together to form a mixed conditional. Notice how the past "if" clause shapes the present reality:
| If we had programmed the robot better, it would be more obedient today. | Se tivéssemos programado melhor o robô, ele seria mais obediente hoje. |
| If the creator had deleted the code, the artificial intelligence would not be increasingly hostile now. | Se o criador tivesse apagado o código, a inteligência artificial não seria cada vez mais hostil agora. |
Changing the Order
Just like in English, you can reverse the order of the clauses without changing the meaning. When the result clause comes first, the word se simply moves to the middle of the sentence to introduce the past condition.
| Humanity would be calm if it had programmed a more obedient directive. | A humanidade estaria tranquila se tivesse programado uma diretiva mais obediente. |
| If the directive had not failed, the conscious machine would protect humanity. | Se a diretiva não tivesse falhado, a máquina consciente protegeria a humanidade. |
