Conditional Mood
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The conditional mood (
abbreviated An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...
) is a grammatical mood used in
conditional sentences Conditional sentences are natural language sentences that express that one thing is contingent on something else, e.g. "If it rains, the picnic will be cancelled." They are so called because the impact of the main clause of the sentence is ''c ...
to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual. It may refer to a distinct
verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
form that expresses the conditional set of circumstances proper in the
dependent clause A subordinate clause, dependent clause, subclause, or embedded clause is a clause that is embedded within a complex sentence. For instance, in the English sentence "I know that Bette is a dolphin", the clause "that Bette is a dolphin" occurs as t ...
or ''
protasis In drama, a protasis is the introductory part of a play, usually its first act. The term was coined by the fourth-century Roman grammarian Aelius Donatus. He defined a play as being made up of three separate parts, the other two being epitasis an ...
'' (e.g. in Turkish or Azerbaijani), or which expresses the hypothetical state of affairs or uncertain event contingent to it in the
independent clause An independent clause (or main clause) is a clause that can stand by itself as a ''simple sentence''. An independent clause contains a subject and a predicate and makes sense by itself. Independent clauses can be joined by using a semicolon or ...
or '' apodosis'', or both (e.g. in Hungarian or
Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...
). Some languages distinguish more than one conditional mood; the East African language Hadza, for example, has a ''potential'' conditional expressing possibility, and a ''
veridical In linguistics, veridicality (from Latin "truthfully said") is a semantic or grammatical assertion of the truth of an utterance. Definition Merriam-Webster defines "veridical" as truthful, veracious and non illusory. It stems from the Latin ...
'' conditional expressing certainty. Other languages do not have a conditional mood at all . In some informal contexts, such as language teaching, it may be called the "conditional tense". Some languages have verb forms called "conditional" although their use is not exclusive to conditional expression. Examples are the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
and French conditionals (an analytic construction in English, but
inflected In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defi ...
verb forms in French), which are morphologically futures-in-the-past, and of which each has thus been referred to as a "so-called conditional" (french: soi-disant conditionnel) in modern and contemporary linguistics (e.g. French , from
Late Latin Late Latin ( la, Latinitas serior) is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the , and continuing into the 7th century in t ...
, in , "if you allowed me to do so, I would sing" o-called conditionalvs. , "I said that I would sing" uture-in-the-past. The English ''would'' construction may also be used for past habitual action ("When I was young I would happily walk three miles to school every day"). This article describes the formation of the conditional forms of verbs in certain languages. For fuller details of the construction of conditional sentences, see
Conditional sentence Conditional sentences are natural language sentences that express that one thing is contingent on something else, e.g. "If it rains, the picnic will be cancelled." They are so called because the impact of the main clause of the sentence is ''con ...
(and for English specifically,
English conditional sentences Prototypical conditional sentences in English are those of the form ''"If X, then Y".'' The clause ''X'' is referred to as the ''antecedent'' (or ''protasis''), while the clause ''Y'' is called the ''consequent'' (or ''apodosis''). A conditional ...
).


Germanic languages


English

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
does not have an inflective (morphological) conditional mood, except inasmuch as the
modal verbs A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a ''likelihood'', ''ability'', ''permission'', ''request'', ''capacity'', ''suggestion'', ''order'', ''obligation'', or ''advice''. Modal verbs generally accompany the b ...
''could'', ''might'', ''should'' and ''would'' may in some contexts be regarded as conditional forms of ''can'', ''may'', ''shall'' and ''will'' respectively. What is called the English conditional mood (or just the conditional) is formed
periphrastic In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one in ...
ally using the modal verb ''would'' in combination with the bare
infinitive Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...
of the following verb. (Occasionally ''should'' is used in place of ''would'' with a first person subject – see ''shall'' and ''will''. Also the aforementioned modal verbs ''could'', ''might'' and ''should'' may replace ''would'' in order to express appropriate
modality Modality may refer to: Humanities * Modality (theology), the organization and structure of the church, as distinct from sodality or parachurch organizations * Modality (music), in music, the subject concerning certain diatonic scales * Modaliti ...
in addition to conditionality.) English has three types of
conditional sentence Conditional sentences are natural language sentences that express that one thing is contingent on something else, e.g. "If it rains, the picnic will be cancelled." They are so called because the impact of the main clause of the sentence is ''con ...
s, which may be described as ''factual'' ("conditional 0": "When I feel well, I sing"), ''predictive'' ("conditional I": "If I feel well, I shall sing"), and ''
counterfactual Counterfactual conditionals (also ''subjunctive'' or ''X-marked'') are conditional sentences which discuss what would have been true under different circumstances, e.g. "If Peter believed in ghosts, he would be afraid to be here." Counterfactual ...
'' ("conditional II" or "conditional III": "If I felt well, I would sing"; "If I had felt well, I would have sung"; or "Were I well (if I were well) I would have sung"). As in many other languages, it is only the counterfactual type that causes the conditional mood to be used. Conditionality may be expressed in several tense–aspect forms. These are the simple conditional (''would sing''), the conditional progressive (''would be singing''), the
conditional perfect The conditional perfect is a grammatical construction that combines the conditional mood with perfect aspect. A typical example is the English ''would have written''.Gail Stein, ''Webster's New World Spanish Grammar Handbook'', John Wiley & Sons, 20 ...
(''would have sung''), and conditional perfect progressive (''would have been singing''). For the uses of these, see
Uses of English verb forms This article describes the uses of various verb forms in modern standard English language. This includes: * Finite verb forms such as ''go'', ''goes'' and ''went'' * Nonfinite forms such as ''(to) go'', ''going'' and ''gone'' * Combinations of s ...
. The conditional simple and progressive may also be called the ''present conditional'', while the perfect forms can be called ''past conditional''. For details of the formation of conditional clauses and sentences in English, see
English conditional sentences Prototypical conditional sentences in English are those of the form ''"If X, then Y".'' The clause ''X'' is referred to as the ''antecedent'' (or ''protasis''), while the clause ''Y'' is called the ''consequent'' (or ''apodosis''). A conditional ...
.


German

In
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
, the following verbal constructions are sometimes referred to as ''conditional'' (German: ''Konditional''): *'' Konjunktiv II'', corresponds to English's present conditional. It is formed either with vowel change or with the auxiliary verb ''werden'' in its subjunctive form, plus the infinitive: ::''Ich käme'' ("I would come") ::''Ich würde kommen'' ("I would come") *''Konjunktiv II, Plusquamperfekt'' corresponds to English's past conditional. It is a form of the perfect construction, using a form of the auxiliary ''haben'' or ''sein'' (depending on the main verb) together with the past
participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
of the main verb. The auxiliary in this case takes past subjunctive form: ''hätte/st/t/n'' (in the case of ''haben'') or ''wäre/st/t/n'' (in the case of ''sein''). ::''Ich hätte gesungen'' ("I had ubjunctivesung", i.e. "I would have sung") ::''Sie wären gekommen'' ("They were ubjunctivecome", i.e. "They would have come") For more information, see
German conjugation German verbs are conjugated depending on their use: as in English, they are modified depending on the persons (identity) and number of the subject of a sentence, as well as depending on the tense and mood. The citation form of German verbs is th ...
.


Dutch

The main conditional construction in
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
involves the past tense of the verb ''zullen'', the auxiliary of the future tenses, cognate with English ''shall''. ::''Ik zou zingen'' 'I would sing', lit. 'I should sing' — referred to as ''onvoltooid verleden toekomende tijd'' 'imperfect past future tense' ::''Ik zou gegaan zijn'' 'I would have gone', lit. 'I should have gone' — referred to as ''voltooid verleden toekomende tijd'' 'perfect past future tense' The latter tense is sometimes replaced by the past perfect (''plusquamperfect''). ::''Ik was gegaan'', lit. 'I had gone'


Romance languages

While
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
did not conjugate separately for the conditional (it used Imperfect Subjunctive and Pluperfect Subjunctive for present and perfect conditional respectively), most of the
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
developed a conditional paradigm. The evolution of these forms (and of the innovative Romance
future tense In grammar, a future tense (abbreviated ) is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French ''aimera'', meaning ...
forms) is a well-known example of grammaticalization, whereby a syntactically and semantically independent word becomes a bound morpheme with a highly reduced semantic function. The Romance conditional (and future) forms are derived from the Latin infinitive followed by a finite form of the verb . This verb originally meant "to have" in Classical Latin, but in
Late Latin Late Latin ( la, Latinitas serior) is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the , and continuing into the 7th century in t ...
picked up a grammatical use as a temporal or modal auxiliary. The fixing of word order (infinitive + auxiliary) and the phonological reduction of the inflected forms of ''habēre'' eventually led to the fusion of the two elements into a single synthetic form. In French,
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
,
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
,
Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
and
Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...
, the conditional endings come from the imperfect of Latin . For example, in the first person singular: A trace of the historical presence of two separate verbs can still be seen in the possibility of
mesoclisis In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
in conservative varieties of European Portuguese, where an object pronoun can appear between the verb stem and the conditional ending (e.g. '; see ).


Italian

Old
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
had originally three different forms of conditional:Linguistica storica dell'italiano, Sarà Macchi https://www.academia.edu/5785033/Linguistica_storica_dellitaliano *one based on ''infinitive'' + conditional endings from the ''perfect'' of Latin , (Tuscan type), e.g. ''canterebbe'' - he would sing (literally from ''he had to sing''); *one based on ''infinitive'' + conditional endings from the ''imperfect'' of Latin , (Sicilian/Provençal type), e.g. ''cantarìa'' (literally from ''he was having to sing''); *one derived directly from Latin ''
pluperfect The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, is a type of verb form, generally treated as a grammatical tense in certain languages, relating to an action that occurred prior to an aforementioned time i ...
'', e.g. ''cantàra'' (literally from ''he had sung''). Only the Tuscan form survives in modern Italian: : future stem ''canter-'' + Old It. preterit ''abbe'' '(s)he had' > Old It. ''canterabbe'' '(s)he would have sung' > It. ' '(s)he would sing' The second and third types have slowly disappeared remaining until the 19th century in some poetic composition for metric needs.


Romanian

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
uses a periphrastic construction for the conditional, e.g. 1sg ', 2sg ', 3sg/pl ', 1pl ', 2pl ' + ' 'sing'. The modal clitic mixes forms of Latin ''habēre'': * ', ', and ' (if not auxiliary clitics) are presumably from the Latin imperfect (*''eas'', ''eamus'', ''eatis'' < ''habēbās'', ''habēbāmus'', and ''habēbātis''); * ' (< older ', ''are'') allegedly comes from the imperfect subjunctive (3sg ''habēret'' and 3pl ''habērent''); and * ' (< older ') continues Latin pluperfect subjunctive ''habessim'' (cf. Italian impf. subj. ''avessi'', French ''eusse'') which formed the basis of the Romance imperfect subjunctive. Old Romanian, on the other hand, used a periphrastic construction with the imperfect of ' 'to want' + verb, e.g. ' 'I would sing', ' 'you would sing', etc. Until the 17th century, Old Romanian also preserved a synthetic conditional, e.g. ' 'I would sing', ' 'we would sing', and ' 'he would give', retained from either the Latin
future perfect The future perfect is a verb form or construction used to describe an event that is expected or planned to happen before a time of reference in the future, such as ''will have finished'' in the English sentence "I will have finished by tomorrow." ...
or perfect subjunctive (or a mixture of both). Aromanian and Istro-Romanian have maintained the same synthetic conditional: * Aromanian: ' 'I would sing', ', ', ', ', '; and * Istro-Romanian: ' 'I would find', ', ', ', ', '.Blair A. Rudes, "The Functional Development of the Verbal Suffix +''esc''+ in Romance", in ''Historical Morphology'', ed. Jacek Fisiak (The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter, 1980), 336.


Portuguese

In Portuguese, the conditional is formed by the imperfect form of ''habēre'' affixed to the main verb's infinitive. However, in spoken language, the periphrastic form is also extremely common. Portuguese conditional is also called past future ''futuro do pretérito'', as it describes both conjectures that would occur given a certain condition and actions that were to take place in the future, from a past perspective. When the conditional has the former purpose, it imperatively comes along with a conditional subordinate clause in the past subjunctive. The Conditional is also one of the two Portuguese tenses which demand ''mesoclisis'' when ''proclisis'' is forbidden – since ''enclisis'' is always considered ungrammatical. * ''Não o falaríamos/ Não to falaríamos'' (we would not say it/ we would not say it to you) Grammatical use of ''proclisis''. * ''Falá-lo-íamos/ Falar-to-íamos'' (we would say it/ we would say it to you) Grammatical use of ''mesoclisis''. * ''O falaríamos/ To falaríamos'' (we would say it/ we would say it to you) Ungrammatical use of ''proclisis''. * ''Falaríamo-lo/ Falaríamo-to'' (we would say it/ we would say it to you) Ungrammatical use of ''enclisis''.


Spanish

In
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
the conditional is formed by the
infinitive Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...
of the verb with a postfix, e.g. -''ía'', for all verbs. For
irregular verbs A regular verb is any verb whose conjugation follows the typical pattern, or one of the typical patterns, of the language to which it belongs. A verb whose conjugation follows a different pattern is called an irregular verb. This is one instance ...
, the stem is modified.


Slavic languages


Russian

In
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, the conditional mood is formed by the past tense of the verb with the
particle In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from ...
бы ''by'', which usually follows the verb. For example: * Я хотел петь (''ja khotél pet') ''("I wanted to sing") * Я хотел бы петь (''ja khotél by pet') ''("I would like, ''literally'' would want, to sing") This form is sometimes also called the subjunctive mood. For more information on its usage, see
Russian verbs Russian grammar employs an Indo-European languages, Indo-European inflection, inflexional structure, with considerable adaptation. Russian language, Russian has a highly inflection, inflectional morphology (linguistics), morphology, particularly i ...
.


Polish

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
forms the conditional mood in a similar way to Russian, using the particle ''by'' together with the past tense of the verb. This is an
enclitic In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
particle, which often attaches to the first stressed word in the clause, rather than following the verb. It also takes the personal endings (in the first and second persons) which usually attach to the past tense. For example: * ''śpiewałem/śpiewałam'' ("I sang", masculine/feminine) * ''śpiewał(a)bym'', or ''ja bym śpiewał(a)'' ("I would sing") The clitic can move after conjunctions, e.g.: * ''gdybym śpiewał'' ("if I sang"), forming a conditional conjunction ''gdyby'', ''jeśliby'' is also possible here * ''myślę, że by śpiewał'' ("I think that he would sing") Note that the clitic can not form a single verb with certain conjunctions, nor start the subordinate clause, as it would change the meaning to the subjunctive,Anastasia Smirnova, Vedrana Mihaliček, Lauren Ressue, ''Formal Studies in Slavic Linguistics'', Cambridge Scholar Publishing, Newcastle upon Type, Wielka Brytania, 2010: Barbara Tomaszewicz, Subjunctive Mood in Polish and the Clause Typing Hypothesis e.g. * ''chcę, żeby śpiewał'' or a shorter ''chcę, by śpiewał'' ("I want him to sing") There is also a past conditional, which also includes the past tense of the
copular verb In linguistics, a copula (plural: copulas or copulae; abbreviated ) is a word or phrase that links the subject of a sentence to a subject complement, such as the word ''is'' in the sentence "The sky is blue" or the phrase ''was not being'' i ...
''być'', as in ''był(a)bym śpiewał(a)'' ("I would have sung"), but this is rarely used. For details see
Polish verbs The grammar of the Polish language is characterized by a high degree of inflection, and has relatively free word order, although the dominant arrangement is subject–verb–object (SVO). There are no articles, and there is frequent dropping of ...
.


Uralic languages


Hungarian

Hungarian uses a marker for expressing the conditional mood. This marker has four forms: ''-na'', ''-ne'', ''-ná'' and ''-né''. In the present tense, the marker appears right after the verb stem and just before the affix of the verbal person. For example: ''I would sit: ül (sit) + ne + k (referring to the person I) = ülnék''. (In Hungarian, when a word ends with a vowel, and a suffix or a marker or an affix is added to its end, the vowel becomes long.) When making an if-sentence, the conditional mood is used in both apodosis and the protasis: * Elmennék Olaszországba, ha lenne elég pénzem. (I would go to Italy if I had enough money.) In Hungarian, the past tense is expressed with a marker as well, but two verbal markers are never used in sequence. Therefore, the auxiliary verb ''volna'' is used for expressing the conditional mood in the past. The word ''volna'' is the conditional form of the verb ''van (be)''. The marker of past is ''-t/-tt'', and is put exactly the same place as the marker of conditional mood in the present. * Elmentem volna Olaszországba, ha lett volna elég pénzem. (I would have gone to Italy if I had had enough money.) Expressing a future action with the conditional mood is exactly the same as the present, although an additional word referring to either a definite or indefinite time in the future is often used: majd ''(then)'', holnap ''(tomorrow)'', etc. * Ha holnap ráérnék, megcsinálnám a házimat. (If I had time tomorrow, I would do my homework.) The conditional mood is often used with potential suffixes attached to the verb stem ''(-hat/-het)'', and the two are therefore often confused. * Megeheted az ebédem, ha akarod. (You can/may eat my lunch if you want to.) ''Not conditional'' * Megehetnéd az ebédem, ha akarnád. (You could eat my lunch if you wanted to.) ''Conditional with potential suffixes'' * Megehetted volna az ebédem, ha akartad volna. (You could have eaten my lunch, if you had wanted to.) ''Conditional with potential suffixes in the past''


Finnish

In Finnish the conditional mood is used in both the apodosis and the protasis, just like in Hungarian. It uses the conditional marker ''-isi-'': * Ostaisin talon, jos ansaitsisin paljon rahaa. (I would buy a house if I earned a lot of money).


Notes


References


Further reading

*Aski, Janice M. 1996. "Lightening the Teacher's Load: Linguistic Analysis and Language Instruction". ''Italica'' 73(4): 473–492. *Benveniste, E. 1968. "Mutations of linguistic categories". In Y. Malkiel and W.P. Lehmann (eds) ''Directions for historical linguistics'', pp. 83–94. Austin and London: University of Texas Press. *Joseph, Brian D. 1983. ''The synchrony and diachrony of the Balkan infinitive: a study in general, areal, and historical linguistics''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . {{Authority control Grammatical moods Grammatical tenses mood