---

What is the Italian conditional mood?

The condizionale is one of the four finite moods of Italian, alongside indicativo, congiuntivo and imperativo. If the indicativo is the mood of facts, and the congiuntivo is the mood of opinion and uncertainty, the condizionale is the mood of if things were different. It has exactly two tenses: condizionale presente (one word: andrei) and condizionale passato (two words: sarei andato).

Those two tenses cover five very different functions. Knowing the form is ten per cent of the job; knowing which of the five you are in is the other ninety.

---

How to form the condizionale presente

The present conditional is built on the same stem as the future tense. If you can conjugate the futuro, you already know where the conditional stem comes from. The endings are unique to this mood.

Pronoun	parlare	vendere	dormire
io	parlerei	venderei	dormirei
tu	parleresti	venderesti	dormiresti
lui / lei	parlerebbe	venderebbe	dormirebbe
noi	parleremmo	venderemmo	dormiremmo
voi	parlereste	vendereste	dormireste
loro	parlerebbero	venderebbero	dormirebbero

The irregular stems are the same as the future: essere → sarei, avere → avrei, fare → farei, dire → direi, andare → andrei, dovere → dovrei, potere → potrei, volere → vorrei, sapere → saprei, vedere → vedrei, venire → verrei, bere → berrei, rimanere → rimarrei, tenere → terrei.

---

How to form the condizionale passato

The past conditional is a compound tense: conditional of the auxiliary (avere or essere) + past participle. Same auxiliary rules as the passato prossimo.

• Avrei parlato = I would have spoken.
• Sarei andato / andata = I would have gone.
• Sarei partito / partita = I would have left.
• Avremmo fatto = We would have done.

Agreement on the past participle follows the usual rules: with essere, the participle agrees with the subject; with avere, only with a direct object pronoun preceding the verb.

---

Use 1: the polite request (vorrei, potrebbe, saprebbe)

The single most common use of the conditional in spoken Italian is softening a request. Voglio un caffè is grammatical but bossy: it sounds like a command. Vorrei un caffè is the standard polite form every barista hears a hundred times a day.

• Vorrei un cappuccino al banco, per favore.
• Mi presteresti cinquanta euro fino a venerdì?
• Potrebbe aprire la finestra, per cortesia?
• Saprebbe dirmi dov’è la stazione?

In this register the conditional is doing what English does with “could”, “would” or “might”. Switching to the indicative (vuoi, mi presti, può aprire) is grammatical but reads as curt or casual.

---

Use 2: the opinion softener (direi, sarebbe meglio)

Italians dislike sounding blunt. When they want to share an opinion without nailing it to the wall, they use the conditional.

• Direi che il progetto non è ancora pronto. (I would say the project is not ready yet.)
• Sarebbe meglio posticipare la riunione. (It would be better to postpone the meeting.)
• Preferirei un ristorante meno caro. (I would prefer a cheaper restaurant.)

This register is everywhere in workplace conversation. Learn to hear it, or you will read disagreements as agreements.

---

Use 3: the hearsay conditional (the journalism tense)

Italian journalism uses the conditional to report information the reporter cannot yet confirm. This has no exact English equivalent; English usually handles it with “reportedly” or “allegedly”.

• Il sindaco avrebbe firmato il contratto ieri sera. (The mayor reportedly signed the contract last night.)
• Secondo le prime indiscrezioni, la decisione sarebbe già stata presa. (According to early reports, the decision has reportedly already been taken.)
• L’attaccante sarebbe pronto a firmare con la Juventus. (The striker is said to be ready to sign with Juventus.)

The tense signals the author is not yet committed to the claim. You will see this in any Italian newspaper every morning.

---

Use 4: the counterfactual wish (se avessi, andrei)

When you want to talk about something that is not happening but could, Italian pairs a congiuntivo imperfetto in the se-clause with a condizionale presente in the main clause. This is the second type of periodo ipotetico and it is the home of most classroom drills.

• Se vincessi alla lotteria, mi trasferirei a Napoli. (If I won the lottery, I would move to Naples.)
• Se avessi più tempo, imparerei il giapponese. (If I had more time, I would learn Japanese.)
• Se fosse più vicino, verrei a piedi. (If it were closer, I would come on foot.)

For a regret about something that did not happen, both verbs shift one tense back: congiuntivo trapassato + condizionale passato.

• Se avessi studiato di più, sarei passato all’esame. (If I had studied more, I would have passed the exam.)
• Se non avesse piovuto, saremmo andati al mare. (If it had not rained, we would have gone to the beach.)

Never use se + condizionale. *Se avrei tempo and *Se sarei ricco are the most common English-speaker mistakes in the entire Italian grammar. The se-clause takes the subjunctive; the main clause takes the conditional.

---

Use 5: future-in-the-past (the trap)

Here is the rule that fools almost every English and Spanish speaker. When you report in a past tense what someone said about a later moment, English and Spanish use a present conditional: he said he would arrive late, dijo que llegaría tarde. Italian instead uses the condizionale passato.

• Disse che sarebbe arrivato in ritardo. (He said he would arrive late.)
• Pensavo che sarebbe piovuto. (I thought it would rain.)
• Ha promesso che sarebbe tornato entro le otto. (He promised he would be back by eight.)
• Mi aveva detto che avrebbe chiamato. (He had told me he would call.)

The logic: once the reporting verb is in the past, the later action is seen from a past vantage point, so Italian reaches for the past conditional. Using the present conditional (*Disse che arriverebbe) is ungrammatical, not just informal.

---

Condizionale vs congiuntivo: sorting the confusion

Students often collapse the two moods because both handle non-factual content. A quick separation helps.

• The congiuntivo lives in subordinate clauses introduced by che, se, benché, affinché, and friends. It marks the clause as opinion, doubt, wish, or condition. Penso che Marco sia stanco.
• The condizionale lives mostly in main clauses. It marks the action as hypothetical, polite, or reported as unconfirmed. Marco sarebbe stanco, secondo sua madre.
• The two meet in the periodo ipotetico: Se Marco fosse stanco (congiuntivo), dormirebbe (condizionale) di più.

If the verb is in a che-clause and expresses someone’s view, reach for the subjunctive. If the verb is in the main clause and reports a hypothetical or polite version of reality, reach for the Italian conditional.

---

Dialog: at the notary’s office, Monday morning

---

Common mistakes English speakers make with the Italian conditional

• Se + conditional. ❌ *Se avrei tempo. ✅ Se avessi tempo, andrei.
• Present instead of past conditional for future-in-the-past. ❌ *Disse che verrebbe. ✅ Disse che sarebbe venuto.
• Reading hearsay conditionals as regular conditionals. When a newspaper says Il ministro avrebbe dichiarato, it does not mean the minister would have declared. It means reportedly declared.
• Confusing vorrei with voglio. Both translate as want. Voglio is an assertion; vorrei is a request. At the bar, always vorrei.
• Dropping the auxiliary agreement. ❌ *Lei sarebbe arrivato. ✅ Lei sarebbe arrivata.
• Using the indicative to soften opinions. Il progetto non va bene sounds blunt; Il progetto non andrebbe bene sounds professional.

For the se-clause companion to this article, see our guide on Italian if-clauses. For the broader subjunctive system, Italian subjunctive. For the other high-frequency past tense, Italian passato remoto. For the canonical Italian reference, the Treccani entry on condizionale.

---

---

---

Exercise: Italian conditional

Want to wire the condizionale into real speech? Join our Quattro Chiacchiere B2 to C1 conversation group to drill polite register and future-in-the-past live, or book a private one-to-one lesson focused on your weak spots.

---

FAQ: Italian conditional