{"id":7485,"date":"2014-10-16T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=7485"},"modified":"2014-10-16T19:24:41","modified_gmt":"2014-10-16T19:24:41","slug":"how-to-use-the-present-conditional-in-italian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/how-to-use-the-present-conditional-in-italian\/","title":{"rendered":"How to use the Present Conditional in Italian"},"content":{"rendered":"

While I was replying a reader\u2019s question last week about the differences between the congiuntivo presente<\/strong> and the condizionale<\/strong>, I realised that although I\u2019ve covered the use of the congiuntivo presente<\/strong><\/font><\/a> I\u2019d never written an article specifically on the use of the condizionale<\/strong> (conditional). So I\u2019m going to make amends, beginning today with il condizionale presente<\/strong> (the present conditional). But first let\u2019s have a look at how we conjugate it:<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n
Coniugazione del verbo essere:<\/font><\/strong><\/td>\nConjugation of the verb to be:<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
io sarei
tu saresti
lui\/lei sarebbe
noi saremmo
voi sareste
loro sarebbero<\/font><\/strong><\/td>\n		I would be
you would be (singular, informal)
he\/she would be
we would be
you would be (plural)
they would be<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

The present conditional is used:<\/font><\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> to politely express a wish or a request:<\/font>
<\/font>vorrei<\/u> un bicchiere d\u2019acqua, per piacere<\/strong> = I would like<\/u> a glass of water, please
mi potresti<\/u> prestare una penna?<\/strong> = could you<\/u> lend me a pen?
scusi, saprebbe<\/u> dirmi dov\u2019\u00e8 Piazza del Duomo?<\/strong> = excuse me, could you tell me where Piazza del Duomo is? (literally: \u2026 would you know<\/u> how to tell me \u2026<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Medievalis<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Piazza del Duomo, Pontremoli. Photo by Geoff Chamberlain<\/font><\/em><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

2.<\/strong> to express a personal opinion, or to give advice:<\/font>
<\/font>secondo me dovresti<\/u> andare dal dottore<\/strong> = in my opinion you should<\/u> go to the doctor
io suggerirei<\/u> di partire subito dopo pranzo<\/strong> = I would suggest<\/u> that we leave immediately after lunch
sarebbe<\/u> meglio se Marco rimandasse la partenza di qualche giorno <\/strong>= it would be<\/u> better if Marco delayed his departure for a few days<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> to report a piece of news that has not been verified, or that we have doubts about:
<\/font><\/font>secondo alcuni testimoni i rapinatori sarebbero <\/u>ancora all\u2019interno della banca<\/strong> = according to some witnesses the robbers are still inside the bank (literally: \u2026 the robbers would still be<\/u> inside the bank<\/em>)
ho sentito che il presidente del club starebbe pensando<\/u> di presentare le sue dimissioni<\/strong> = I\u2019ve heard that the president of the club is thinking of handing in his resignations (literally: \u2026 the president of the club would be thinking of<\/u> handing in his resignations<\/em>)
mi \u00e8 stato detto che Marco vorrebbe<\/u> trasferirsi in Inghilterra<\/strong> = I\u2019ve been told that Marco would like<\/u> to move to England<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Lig<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u2026 una casa al mare in Liguria. Photo by Geoff Chamberlain<\/font><\/em><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

4.<\/strong> to say what we would do if the conditions were different:<\/font><\/font>
se non piovesse andrei<\/u> a fare due passi<\/strong> = if it didn\u2019t rain, I would go<\/u> for a little stroll
se fossimo ricchi ci compreremmo<\/u> una casa al mare in Liguria<\/strong> = if we were rich we would buy<\/u> a house on the coast in Liguria
se ci fosse abbastanza basilico si potrebbe<\/u> fare una pasta al pesto<\/strong> = if we had enough basil we could<\/u> make pasta with pesto (literally: if there were enough basil, one could make pasta with pesto<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Next week I\u2019m going to cover the past conditional. A presto!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

While I was replying a reader\u2019s question last week about the differences between the congiuntivo presente and the condizionale, I realised that although I\u2019ve covered the use of the congiuntivo presente I\u2019d never written an article specifically on the use of the condizionale (conditional). So I\u2019m going to make amends, beginning today with il condizionale…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":7502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[351062],"class_list":["post-7485","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-italian-verbs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7485"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7505,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7485\/revisions\/7505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}