{"id":7530,"date":"2014-10-22T10:08:10","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T10:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=7530"},"modified":"2014-10-22T17:22:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-22T17:22:50","slug":"how-to-use-the-past-conditional-in-italian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/how-to-use-the-past-conditional-in-italian\/","title":{"rendered":"How to use the Past Conditional in Italian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week we took a look at the present conditional, which, if you missed it, you can find HERE<\/font><\/strong><\/a>. Today we are going to look at il condizionale passato<\/strong> (the past conditional). Here are a couple of examples of how we conjugate it, firstly with the auxiliary verb essere<\/strong> (to be):<\/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 stato\/a
tu saresti stato\/a
lui sarebbe stato
lei sarebbe stata
noi saremmo stati\/e
voi sareste stati\/e
loro sarebbero stati\/e<\/strong><\/font><\/td>\n		I would have been
you would have been (sing, inf.)
he would have been
she would have been
we would have been
you would have been (plural)
they would have been<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

This second example is built with the auxiliary verb avere<\/strong> (to have):<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n
Coniugazione del verbo avere:<\/font><\/strong><\/td>\nConjugation of the verb to have:<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
io avrei avuto
tu avresti avuto
lui\/lei avrebbe avuto
noi avremmo avuto
voi avreste avuto
loro avrebbero avuto<\/strong><\/font><\/td>\n		I would have had
you would have had (sing, inf.)<\/font>
he\/she would have had
we would have had
you would have had (plural)
they would have had<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

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

1.<\/strong> to express a regret:
<\/font><\/font>avrei dovuto seguire<\/u> il consiglio di mio padre!<\/strong> = I should have followed<\/u> my father\u2019s advice!
sarebbe stato<\/u> meglio partire ieri<\/strong> = it would have been<\/u> better to leave yesterday
me<\/u> lo sarei dovuto immaginare<\/u>!<\/strong> = I should have imagined<\/u> that\/it!<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> to express disbelief, incredulity:<\/font><\/font>
chi l\u2019avrebbe<\/u> mai detto<\/u>!<\/strong> = who would ever have thought it! (literally: who would have<\/u> ever said<\/u> it!<\/em>)
l\u2019avresti pensato<\/u> che era cos\u00ec antipatico?<\/strong> = would you have thought<\/u> that he he could be so unfriendly? (literally: that he was so unfriendly<\/em>)
chi l\u2019avrebbe<\/u> mai immaginato<\/u> che la torre di Pisa pendeva cos\u00ec tanto! <\/strong>= who would<\/u> ever  have imagined<\/u> that the tower of Pisa leaned <\/em>so much?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"8328891805_4bb694f7a3_z\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
La Torre di Pisa. Photo: (CC) by <\/font><\/em><\/strong>Maxime Guilbot<\/font><\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

3.<\/strong> to report a piece of news that has not been verified, or that we have doubts about:
<\/font><\/font>la notizia sarebbe stata diffusa<\/u> di proposito dalla polizia<\/strong> = it is thought that the news has been spread by the police on purpose (literally: the news would have been spread<\/u><\/em>)
secondo i giornali il presidente della societ\u00e0 avrebbe presentato<\/u> le dimissioni<\/strong> = according to newspapers the president of the society has handed in his resignations (literally: would have handed in<\/u><\/em>)
alcune fonti internazionali riferiscono che ci sarebbe stato<\/u> un colpo di stato in Antartide<\/strong> = some international fonts report that there has been a coupe in the Antarctic (literally: there would have been<\/u> a coupe<\/em>)<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> to say what we would have done if the conditions had been different:<\/font><\/font>
se fossimo stati pi\u00f9 ricchi avremmo comprato<\/u> una casa al mare in Liguria<\/strong> = if we had been richer we would have bought<\/u> a house on the coast in Liguria
se avessi avuto pi\u00f9 tempo a Venezia, mi sarebbe piaciuto <\/u>visitare anche l\u2019isola di Torcello<\/strong> = If I had had more time in Venice, I would have liked<\/u> to have visited the island of Torcello as well
se ieri non avesse piovuto il bucato si sarebbe asciugato<\/u> completamente<\/strong> = if it hadn\u2019t rained yesterday the washing would have dried<\/u> completely<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Torcello\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Torcello. Photo: (CC) by <\/font><\/em><\/strong>John W. Schulze<\/font><\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

5.<\/strong> to express the future in the past:<\/font><\/font>
Maria mi ha detto che oggi sarebbe andata<\/u> a Sarzana<\/strong> = Maria told me that she would go to Sarzana today (literally: today she would have gone<\/u> to Sarzana<\/em>)
non immaginavo che ci sarebbe voluto<\/u> cos\u00ec tanto tempo<\/strong> = I didn\u2019t imagine that it would take such a long time (literally: it would have taken<\/u><\/em>)
ho chiesto a Giorgio quando sarebbe tornato<\/u> da New York<\/strong> = I asked Giorgio when he would come back from New York (literally: when he would have come back<\/u><\/em>)<\/p>\n

As usual, if you have any questions please leave a comment.<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Last week we took a look at the present conditional, which, if you missed it, you can find HERE. Today we are going to look at il condizionale passato (the past conditional). Here are a couple of examples of how we conjugate it, firstly with the auxiliary verb essere (to be): Coniugazione del verbo essere…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":7538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[351062],"class_list":["post-7530","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\/7530","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=7530"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7550,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7530\/revisions\/7550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}