What this is about
The condicional (also called futuro do pretérito) is the "would" form: what would happen if…, what someone said would happen, and — the way Brazilians use it most — polite softening: gostaria, poderia, seria possível? You already met gostaria in Lição 18; this chapter gives you the whole tense behind it.
The formation — the future's calm twin
| eu moraria · você/ele moraria · nós moraríamos · eles morariam | infinitive + -ia |
| comeria · abriria · seria · teria · iria · poderia | all verbs, same endings — ser/ter/ir regular |
| fazer → faria · dizer → diria · trazer → traria | the same three rebels as the future |
The four jobs
| Com um milhão, eu compraria uma ilha. | hypothetical result |
| Se eu fosse você, eu não faria isso. | advice — se + if-form, then conditional |
| Você poderia me ajudar? · Eu gostaria de um café. · Seria possível…? | politeness |
| Ela disse que viria. · Achei que seria mais fácil. | reported future — "would" |
Exceptions & details
1 · Spoken Brazil swaps in the imperfeito: Se eu ganhasse na loteria, eu comprava uma casa is what most people say; compraria is what they write. Both are correct; the -ria form is safer in anything formal.
2 · Politeness ladder: quero → queria → gostaria (de). Queria um café is already polite; gostaria de um café is restaurant-with-tablecloth polite.
3 · Never after se: "if I would have" is not se eu teria — it's se eu tivesse (Lição 24). The conditional lives in the result half only.
4 · Real past ≠ conditional: "I lived in Brazil last year" is morei, not moraria. The conditional never reports a real event.
Practise this chapter
12 pool questions plus generated ones — 20 fresh practice questions, reshuffled every visit, inside the grammar library.
Practise Condicional — 20 questions →This chapter is taught in Lição 23 of the course (level B1). Rumo is a complete Brazilian Portuguese course, A1 to B2; level A1 is free.