102. The future indicative and
the conditional 1 of all regular and
most irregular verbs are formed by adding the following endings
to the infinitive:
|
Future |
Conditional |
| |
-é |
|
-ía |
|
-ás |
-ías |
|
-á |
-ía |
|
-emos |
-íamos |
|
-éis |
-íais |
|
-án |
-ían |
| I |
CONJ. |
hablaré |
hablaría |
| |
hablarás |
hablarías |
| hablará |
hablaría |
| hablaremos |
hablaríamos |
| hablaréis |
hablaríais |
| hablarán |
hablarían |
| |
|
1
Also called "past future." |
| II |
CONJ. |
comeré etc. |
comería etc. |
| III |
CONJ. |
viviré etc. |
viviría etc. |
The future was originally the infinitive plus the present indicative
of haber (see 111). Hablar
+ he, etc., = hablaré,
etc.
The conditional was, in like manner, the infinitive plus a shortened
form of the past descriptive indicative of haber. Hablar
+ hía, etc., = hablaría,
etc.
For the formation of irregular futures and conditionals, see 470
d.
Learn the irregular futures and conditionals of decir, poder,
querer, tener, venir.
103. The future tense corresponds, generally,
to the English future. Idiomatically it is used to express probability
or conjecture in present time or to give to the object of the verb
or to the predicate nominative a general or indefinite meaning:
Mi amigo estará
ya en
Nueva York. |
My friend is probably already
in New York. |
| ¿Cuántos años
tendrá? |
About how old is he? |
| Tendrá veinte años. |
He is probably twenty years old. |
| ¿Para qué será
esto? |
I wonder what this is for? |
| ¿A qué irá? |
I wonder what he is going for? |
¿Dónde está
él? Estará en
su casa. |
Where is he? At home,
I suppose. |
104. The conditional usually translates the English
conditional should or would:
| Compraría la casa. |
I would buy the house
(if I were able to do so). |
| Dijo que iría. |
He said he would go. |
Idiomatically, the conditional expresses probability or conjecture
in past time (see also 103):
| Serían las diez
cuando llegó. |
It was probably ten o´clock
when he arrived. |
| ¿Qué sería ese
ruido? |
I wonder what that noise was? |
| ¿Qué tendría
él ayer? |
I wonder what was the matter with him yesterday? |
|
