Italian · Chapter 9 · Lesson 14 · Grammar primer
The conditional: would, should, and please
Built on the future's stem, and the tense Italians use to be polite. Vorrei is the most useful word in this chapter.
The short version
Order with vorrei, not voglio
Voglio is I want and vorrei is I would like. Both are correct Italian, but voglio said across a counter sounds like a demand. The conditional is how Italian softens a request, and vorrei is the single most useful form of it, because it opens nearly every transaction you will have in Italy.
Vorrei un caffè, per favore.
Never put the conditional after se
In an Italian if sentence the conditional belongs only to the result. The if half takes the imperfect subjunctive, so it is se avessi and se fossi, never se avrei or se sarei. Italian schoolchildren get corrected on this, so it is worth getting right from the start.
Se avessi tempo, andrei al mare.
That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.
Read the full article · 8 min readPractice
Practise this lesson
10-question session
One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end. There are 20 in all: practise more afterwards if you want them.
Italian · Free printables
Worksheets for this lesson
Worksheets with answer keys built in. Open any one to view, print or save.
Free for members
The printable worksheets, infographics and PDFs are free with an account. Start a free week and download as many as you like.
Start your free weekLesson 14 of 21 in this chapter