# ¿Qué harias en esta situación? - Conditional



## Oros

Qué harias en esta situación?

What would you do in this situation? (sic)
                OR
What would you do in such a situation? (sic)
----------------------------------------------------

Qué le dirias a la reina?
What would you say to the Queen? (sic)


[ I am not sure about my English sentences because I have some difficulty in understanding the Spanish sentences.]

Are those Spanish sentences conditional ones? 

For me, to make a conditional sentence, the conjunction 'if' should be there. Your comments please.





[How do you write the question mark at the beginning of a sentence? In Spanish, you must write the question mark in an awkward manner when writing a sentence of questioning. I don't know how to write it in that way on my computer. Could you please tell me how to write it?]


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## diegodbs

Acentos y símbolos en español. para teclados que no estén en español.


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## Rayines

> Are those Spanish sentences conditional ones?


The tense is the Potential one (in Spanish), similar to the Conditional Tense in English. But our Potential is not necessarily always used for conditional sentences. ¿Do you understand?


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## SrRdRaCinG

¿Por qué usó diego *estén* en lugar de están? ¿Lleva el subjuntivo esa oración?

¿No es un hecho que ese enlance es para teclados que no est*á*n en espanol?


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## diegodbs

Dije "estén" porque me refería a los teclados que no están "ahora" en español, y para los que "en el futuro" tampoco estarán en español. La manera de decir eso es "estén".


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## lazarus1907

Ambos son correctos. Tu versión en indicativo suena más científica, más imparcial (pero no mal ni incorrecta). Con la versión en subjuntivo, Diego no afirma que haya teclados que no están en español: Puede que los haya o no, tanto en el presente como en el futuro. Es una forma más personal y subjetiva de hablar cuando se describen cosas.


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## SrRdRaCinG

*Tampoco* en esa oración quiere decir "either?"


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## lazarus1907

diegodbs said:
			
		

> Dije "estén" porque me refería a los teclados que no están "ahora" en español, y para los que "en el futuro" tampoco estarán en español. La manera de decir eso es "estén".


 I said "estén" because I was referring to the keyboards that are not in Spanish "now" and to those that will not be in Spanish "in the future" either.

(Espero que a Diego no le importe mi traducción rápida)


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## diegodbs

You know que no.


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## SrRdRaCinG

¿Tampoco significa en ese contexto......?


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## Rayines

SrRdRaCinG said:
			
		

> ¿Tampoco significa en ese contexto......?


Es también "no", pero allí se pone "tampoco" para no repetirlo.


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## diegodbs

SrRdRaCinG said:
			
		

> ¿Tampoco significa en ese contexto......?


 
¿Te refieres a este tipo de frases?

A.- *Hoy voy* al cine, ¿y tú?
B.- Yo *también.*

A.- *Hoy no voy* al cine, ¿y tú?
B.-Yo* tampoco.*


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## Oros

Please do write in English too. I don't understand all the Spanish sentences.

So please do write them in English too.  
*
I don't understand all of your Spanish sentences. What have you written? I am a real beginner.*


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## Rayines

Oros said:
			
		

> Please do write in English too. I don't understand all the Spanish sentences.
> 
> So please do write them in English too.
> 
> *I don't understand all of your Spanish sentences. What have you written? I am a real beginner.*


Hello Oros: your original question was answered in messages 2 and 3. The rest of them were referred to a SrRdRaCinG's question. Maybe he himself is willing to explain it in English for you, so that we know he understood it.


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## Oros

¿Por qué usó diego *estén* en lugar de están? ¿Lleva el subjuntivo esa oración?

 ¿No es un hecho que ese enlance es para teclados que no est*á*n en espanol? 




 Dije "estén" porque me refería a los teclados que no están "ahora" en español, y para los que "en el futuro" tampoco estarán en español. La manera de decir eso es "estén".



Ambos son correctos. Tu versión en indicativo suena más científica, más imparcial (pero no mal ni incorrecta). Con la versión en subjuntivo, Diego no afirma que haya teclados que no están en español: Puede que los haya o no, tanto en el presente como en el futuro. Es una forma más personal y subjetiva de hablar cuando se describen cosas.


¿Tampoco significa en ese contexto......?


Es también "no", pero allí se pone "tampoco" para no repetirlo. 		 	 		 		 		 		 			 				__________________



 ¿Te refieres a este tipo de frases?

 A.- *Hoy voy* al cine, ¿y tú?  [ Now I will go to the cinema. How about you?]
 B.- Yo *también. [ Yes, I am going too.]*

 A.- *Hoy no voy* al cine, ¿y tú? [ Now I will not go to the cinema. How about you?]
 B.-Yo* tampoco.*   [  Neither do  I.]  
*

[ Please translate the above into English. I don't understand them. I just translated four sentences. I hope I am correct.]*


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## lazarus1907

*Diegodbs* gave you a link for you to know how to use Spanish symbols in your PC (for example, the "¿"). After that, someone who is learning Spanish at advanced level asked him why did he write a sentence the way he did. The rest of the thread is about this question.

 ¿Qué harías en esta situación?
What would you do in this situation?



			
				diegodbs said:
			
		

> A.- *Hoy voy* al cine, ¿y tú?
> B.- Yo *también.*
> 
> A.- *Hoy no voy* al cine, ¿y tú?
> B.-Yo* tampoco.*


 Today I am going to the cinema. (What about) You?
Me too

Today I am not goint to the cinema. (What about) You?
Me neither.


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## Oros

Rayines wrote the following:

The tense is the Potential one (in Spanish), similar to the Conditional Tense in English. But our Potential is not necessarily always used for conditional sentences. ¿Do you understand?
----------------------------------------------------

No, this is a tall order for me. There is no mention as to potential nature of Spanish conditional in my Spanish-English grammr.


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## lazarus1907

Oros said:
			
		

> The tense is the Potential one (in Spanish), similar to the Conditional Tense in English. But our Potential is not necessarily always used for conditional sentences. ¿Do you understand?



"Potencial", "condicional" or "pospretérito" is very similar to the English "conditional":

Comería
Comerías
Comería
Comeríamos
Comeríais
Comerían


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## Oros

Lazarus wrote the following:

¿Qué harías en esta situación?
 What would you do in this situation?

Would you consider the above Spanish sentence as a conditional one?


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## Oros

Lazarus

 Comería
 Comerías
 Comería
 Comeríamos
 Comeriais
 Comerían

My grammar says the above words are subjunctive. 

There is a clear difference in subjunctive and conditional in English.


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## diegodbs

Oros said:
			
		

> Lazarus
> 
> Comería
> Comerías
> Comería
> Comeríamos
> Comeriais
> Comerían
> 
> My grammar says the above words are subjunctive.
> 
> There is a clear difference in subjunctive and conditional in English.


 
Then your grammar book is wrong.


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## Rayines

Oros said:
			
		

> Lazarus wrote the following:
> 
> ¿Qué harías en esta situación?
> What would you do in this situation?
> 
> Would you consider the above Spanish sentence as a conditional one?


No, Oros, the Tense is called potencial or pospretérito, as Lazarus said (in Spanish), and it's the English Conditional. A conditional sentence would be as follows:
"If I were you, I would go to the doctor"= "Si yo fuera tú, iría al doctor".

The sentence is a conditional one, when there are a condition and a consequence that have been expressed there.


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## Oros

*Subjuntivo*
*               Pretérito imperfecto*
 yo       comiera
 tú       comieras
 él       comiera
 nosotros comiéramos
 vosotros comierais
 ellos    comieran

-----------------------------------------------------------------

*Indicativo
**               Pretérito imperfecto*
 yo       comía
 tú       comías
 él       comía
 nosotros comíamos
 vosotros comíais
 ellos    comían


The above from a grammar. Is the book wrong?


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## diegodbs

That's correct, but what you said (or the book) about "comería" being subjunctive is wrong.


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## Rayines

> The above from a grammar. Is the book wrong?


No, it isn't wrong, and you can add this one, already given by Lazarus, and explained by Diego:



> *Indicativo*
> *Potencial o pospretérito*
> yo comería
> tú comerías
> él comería
> nosotros comeríamos
> vosotros comeríais
> ellos comerían


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## lazarus1907

It is easy to get confused between:

Comiera, comería and comía
Comieras, comerías and comías...

The first is "imperfecto de subjuntivo". The second "condicional". The third "imperfecto de indicativo."

Inés, Diego and I know our verb tenses pretty well, believe us.


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## lazarus1907

Oros said:
			
		

> Lazarus wrote the following:
> 
> ¿Qué harías en esta situación?
> What would you do in this situation?
> 
> Would you consider the above Spanish sentence as a conditional one?


 "Condicional" is just the name of the tense in Spanish, but most of the time it is used for conditions (explicit or implicit):

 ¿What would you do (... if you had so much money)?
¿Qué harías (...si tuvieras tanto dinero)?


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## Oros

_I thank everybody for all the comments. They are very useful to me._

For me this is a bit problematic. In English there is no conjugation for conditional.

You have to use 'if'  in English to make a conditional sentence.

You have to use 'Si' in French to make a conditional sentence.

For the best of my knowledge of English and French, it is not possible or rather very difficult to make a conditional sentence without using the words 'if'  and 'si'. (sic)

Spanish is a unique language.


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## Rayines

Oros said:
			
		

> _I thank everybody for all the comments. They are very useful to me._
> 
> For me this is a bit problematic. In English there is no conjugation for conditional.
> 
> You have to use 'if' in English to make a conditional sentence.
> 
> You have to use 'Si' in French to make a conditional sentence.
> 
> For the best of my knowledge of English and French, it is not possible or rather very difficult to make a conditional sentence without using the words 'if' and 'si'. (sic)
> 
> Spanish is a unique language.


Hello Oros: I think you should make a difference between "conditional sentences" and "conditional tense" (in Spanish: potencial or pospretérito). I think it's very similar to English: conditional sentences in Spanish are generally introduced by "si"= "if" (look at my example some messages before), but not always the use of the "potencial" means condition. The same as in English I think: when you say :"Would you like a cup of tea?" that's Conditional Tense, but it isn't a conditional sentence.
Hope not to confound you.


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## Oros

Thanks Rayines.

For me the words 'Would you like a cup of coffee? ' implies a polite request. Then you would ask what is an impolite request.

Can I have a cup of coffee? is not a polite way of asking when I visit a friend. 

Of course the degree politeness varis in different cultures.

The words 'Would you like ... are without any condtions attached.  I hope you got my point here.


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## Rayines

> The words 'Would you like ... are without any condtions attached. I hope you got my point here.


This is just what I mean: In English, the same as in Spanish, we can use the Conditional Tense (potencial in Spanish) without meaning a conditional sentence. (Well, I stop explaining it here, Oros ).


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## Oros

Rayines

I appreciate all the comments you made here. It seems you are a bit angry. I am a beginner when it comes to Spanish. I know sometimes you get tired of explaining things again and again.

I urge you to continue supporting me.


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