Spanish Moods

Spanish Conditional Mood

The conditional mood (modo potencial) is used to expresses a future uncertainty; usually a “but” or “if” expressing the reason for the uncertainty; it also expresses the idea of would, and it is one of the simplest Spanish moods. It’s formed by combining the Infinitive+ …-ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían. This set of endings is compatible with all kind of verbs (-ar, -er, -ir).

Note that like the future tense, some verbs may take an irregular stem before the endings, like the verb (decir which becomes dir + the endings above).

Some examples of the Spanish conditional:
Lo haría esta noche, pero no tendré tiempo. (I would do it tonight, but I won't have time.)
Lo habría hecho anoche, pero no tenía tiempo. (I would have done it last night, but I didn't have time.)
Te dije que vendría. (I told you I would come.)
-It’s commonly used to refer to what one expects or says will happen: past tense + conditional:

Te dije que vendría (I told you he would come). Yo pensaba que vendría (I thought he would come).

-It can also be used to express doubt in the past: Sería las diez (It was probably 10 o'clock).

-Also note that the verb querer is used in the conditional to express a polite request: Quería saber (I would like to know)
-The verb gustarse is used to express a polite desire or wish:  Me gustaría salir contigo (I would like to go out with you). me gustaría salir, pero estoy resfriado (I wish I can go out, but I have a cold).

-Also used with si (if) clauses. Si tuviera una galleta, la comería (if I had a cake, I would eat it)

Spanish Conditional Perfect

The conditional perfect (potencial perfecto) is a compound tense using the conditional of the auxiliary verb haber and the past participle of the main verb:
habría, habrías, habría, habríamos, habríais, habrían +  (past participle, examples on the table below)

habrías comido (you would have eaten), habría dicho (he/she would have said), habrían puesto (they would have put).

The conditional perfect refers to events which would have been completed had the situation been different, Note that this tense is generally used with the forms "hubieras/hubiese":

- Si no hubiera nevado habríamos terminado de decorar la casa (If it hadn’t snowed, we would have finished decorating the house).

- Si no hubiera estado tan enfermo , habría terminado el trabajo (If I had not been so sick, I would have finished the job).

Note: The conditional is often treated as though it was a tense rather than a mood; strictly conversational, however, the conditional is a mood which has two tenses: a simple tense used when referring to present possibilities and a compound tense used when referring to possibilities in the past.

Spanish Imperative

The imperative or positive familiar Cammands (mandatos) are used when you are telling (not just asking!) somebody to do something or giving him an order. They’re expressed by means of the imperative mood. The Spanish imperative exists for 5 different grammatical persons: tú, Ud., nosotros, vosotros, and Uds. Most often we find the formal form Ud. (You polite) Ud: ¡hable usted más despacio! por favor.(speak slowly, please!). Tú: ¡espera a tu madre! (wait for your mother). nosotros: ¡Hablemos de otras cosas! (Let’s talk about other things!). vosotros (only in Spain): ¡dormid vosotros! (Go to sleep, you all!). Uds: ¡hablen ustedes más despacio! por favor. (you poeple) speak slowly, please!)

Now we will see how to form an imperative sentence with these five grammatical persons: 

-To use the imperative for Ud, add an a to the stem of verbs ending with (-er, and -ir), and an e to the stem of verbs ending with (-ar). examples ¡hable usted! (talk!), ¡viva usted! (live!) ¡coma usted¡ (eat!), but remember there are some irregularities, you will see them in the table below.

-The second person singular (tú) forms are identical to the third person singular of the present tense: El profesor habla. (The professor is talking.) ¡Habla tú! (Talk!)
-The first person plural (nosotros) is formed, by changing the letter before -mos to either e or a depending on if the original verb is ending with (-ar, -er, or -ir): -ar: e ¡hablemos¡ ! estudiemos. -er: a like in (¡comamos!)  -ir: a like in (¡abramos!)

-The second person plural (vosotros) forms are based on the infinitive, with a -d substituted for the final -r: ¡Dormid vosotros! (Go to sleep, all of you!)
-The third person plural (ustedes) for -ar: e ¡hablen ustedes! For –er, -ir: a ¡vivan ustedes! ¡coman ustedes!

In general these are the variations, which occur to the ending of verbs including the Negative familiar commands, both singular and plural, are expressed by the present subjunctive:

Regular -ar ending verbs: Take the present tense of the verb and change the (a) at the beginning of the suffix to (e).(for all the 5 grammatical persons)

Regular -er ending verbs: Change the (e) at the beginning of the suffix after the stem to (a).( for all the 5 grammatical persons)

Regular -ir ending verbs: For tú, Ud., and Uds., change the (e) at the beginning of the suffix after the stem to (a).

Nosotros: Change the (i) at the beginning of the suffix to (a). Vosotros: Change (í) to (ái).

-The present subjunctive is used for formal commands, both positive and negative: Duerma Ud. (Please go to sleep). It is also used for indirect commands (introduced by the conjunction que): Está cansado; que se acueste. (He's tired; let him go to bed.)
-For impersonal commands given in a general sense (directions on a bottle or an examination paper, for instance) the impersonal pronoun se is attached to the subjunctive:
Agítese antes de usar. (Shake before using.). Escríbase en español. (Write in Spanish.)
Hortatory commands can be expressed either with the subjunctive or with the phrase vamos a and an infinitive:
Durmamos. (Let's go to sleep.). Vamos a dormir. (Let's go to sleep.)
Object pronouns are attached to affirmative commands, but they precede negative and indirect commands:
Tráigamelo Ud.. (Bring it to me.) No me lo traiga Ud. (Don't bring it to me.) Que lo traiga Juan. (Let Juan bring it.)

This table shows how commands change, note the negative form:

These are irregular verbs in the imperative form, which can be used in commands in Spanish: