Il condizionale
1. The CONDIZIONALE, or conditional tense, is roughly the equivalent of the English "would + infinitive.“ 2. As in English, the CONDIZIONALE is used to express: hopes and desires ("of course I would go to Italy!"); a possibility depending on certain conditions ("I would ski if there were snow"); to soften a request ("Would you bring me some coffee?"); to express personal opinions ("I would say that our teacher is too demanding"). 3. The CONDIZIONALE is a verb mood (like the INDICATIVO, INFINITO, IMPERATIVO are also verb moods) which has two tenses, the present and the past: CONDIZIONALE PRESENTE and CONDIZIONALE PASSATO. 4. The CONDIZIONALE PASSATO is used to express the uses described in 2. above, when the action refers to something in the past.
5. The CONDIZIONALE PASSATO is also used to indicate a future action from the point of view of the past; English, by contrast, uses the present conditional for this: "Yesterday, my sister told me that she would visit me today;" in Italian, you would say: "Ieri, mia sorella mi ha detto che oggi mi avrebbe visitato.“ 6. The CONDIZIONALE of "potere," "volere," and "dovere" is "potrei," "vorrei," and "dovrei," and it can be translated as "I could," "I would like," "I should.“ The CONDIZIONALE presente is formed by adding the CONDIZIONALE endings to the stem of the FUTURO. The CONDIZIONALE passato is formed by using the CONDIZIONALE of AVERE or ESSERE (depending on what the verb takes) plus the PARTICIPIO PASSATO.
CONDIZIONALE PRESENTE CONDIZIONALE PASSATO scriver-ei scriver-esti scriver-ebbe scriver-emmo scriver-este scriver-ebbero sarei andato saresti andato sarebbe andato saremmo andati sareste andati sarebbero andati avrei mangiato avresti mangiato avrebbe mangiato avremmo mangiato avreste mangiato avrebbero mangiato