Learn Spanish (Spain): El terremoto destruiría el pueblo. - The earthquake probably destroyed the village.

This is the main focus of this lesson! While the conditional tense (destruiría) usually means 'would destroy', Spanish frequently uses it to make a guess or express probability about a past event. In English, we typically say 'probably destroyed' or 'must have destroyed', but in Spanish, the conditional is a very natural way to express this past uncertainty.

If I wanted to say 'The earthquake would destroy the village' as a hypothetical, is the Spanish sentence exactly the same?

Yes, it is identical: El terremoto destruiría el pueblo. The context of the conversation tells you whether the speaker is making a guess about a past event ('probably destroyed') or talking about a hypothetical situation ('would destroy if it happened').

How else could I express this idea if I forget to use this conditional trick?

You can use a word for 'probably' alongside the standard past tense (preterite). For example, you could say Probablemente el terremoto destruyó el pueblo or Seguramente el terremoto destruyó el pueblo. Both options mean the exact same thing as this sentence.

I thought pueblo meant 'people'. Why is it translated as 'village' here?

El pueblo can mean 'the people' (as in a nation or a united community), but it is also the standard word for a 'village' or 'small town'. When talking about physical destruction by an earthquake, it refers to the town itself. If you meant the individuals living there, you would usually say la gente.