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Published: Friday, 15 March 2024 13:38

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Gerund form:

We briefly saw in Verbs section that the gerund of Spanish verbs is equivalent to the English -ing form. This refers to verb in present, but it's progressing right now, so it's also called as "present progressive" in English/Spanish. However, it's not strictly "present progressive", as this is the V4 form of verb aka "Present participle". The present participle form is used in the past, present, and future progressive tenses to indicate that something is happening (or has happened or will be happening) over a period of time (i.e is walking, was walking, will be walking). In Spanish the gerund form is very easy, as it doesn't have a 3x2 table. All entries of 3x2 table are the same. The slight difference is in how -ar and -er/-ir verbs are treated. For making Gerund form of a verb, we replace -ar with  -ando (for -ar verb) and -er/-ir with -iendo (for -er/-ir verb).

-ing form of verbs require a "to be" verb like am, is, etc. We have to use "estar" form of the verb along with gerund form of main verb, which is "to be" for temporary state. Depending on present, past, future, etc, estar has to conjugated appropriately.

ex: I am running => Yo estoy corriendo. Here estar form is used for "am" as -ing form is always temporarary. So, we used estoy.

• Regular ve
  • ex: cantar (to sing) => singing => cantando
  • ex: hablar (to speak) => speaking => hablando (to speak is hablar, so -ando)
  • ex: comer/vivir (to eat / to live) => eating / living => comiendo / viviendo (-er/-ir verb, so -iendo). ex: He is eating => él ésta corriendo. (we use ésta for is, see in ser/estar section)
  • ex: hacer (to do) => doing => haciendo. ex: He is doing => él está haciendo.
• Irregular verbs: Irregular verbs explained in another section. In short, these are the verbs that don't follow the usual pattern. Ex of such verbs used in Gerund form:
  • ex: leer (to read) => reading => should be leiendo, but it sounds weird as there are 3 vowels next to each other -iei-, so we change it to leyendo
  • ex: dormir (to sleep) => sleeping. dormir is stem changing verb, with stem being "durm", so verb becomes durmiendo.
  • ex: decir (to say) => saying. stem for dec is dic. So, it's diciendo

 Present, Past and Future form of gerund:

As we saw above, the -ing verb remains same for all past/present/future forms, but the "to be" verb, estar changes form based on past/present/future forms

• Present Gerund: I am doing this work => estoy haciendo este trabajo. Follows regular present tense table for estar.
• Past Gerund: I was eating => yo estaba comiendo. Here "was" is used in imperfect form, as the event was an ongoing event in the past, and is also used for repeated or habitual events (i.e I used to eat cereals). The English translation may also mean "I used to be eating". We can't use past form of estar, i.e "estuve" as it can only be used in sentences like "I was hit" indicating completion of event in the past. Look in "ser/estar" section for conjugation of estar in past imperfect form.
• Future Gerund: I will be eating => yo estaré comiendo. estaré is the future form of verb estar. Look in "ser/estar" section for conjugation of estar in future form. Future form of all verbs are same irrespective of being -ar/-er/-ir. ser/estar also follows this pattern.

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Published: Sunday, 10 March 2024 17:02

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Summarized Table for Past, Present and Future Tense of -ar, -er and -ir verbs for singular form only:

Here's are all 3 forms for 25 most commonly used verbs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDUuB5YohO4

Since singular form I and you are used so often, it makes sense to learn these ones, instead of trying to remember tables for all forms. Here is the concise table (I've put plural forms at bootom of table to keep everything in one table). I've highlighted the first 3 rows as that is going to be used most often. The "you all" form (5th row) is only when talking in Spaon, and you can avoid that altogether (darkened as red below).

TIPS:

1. Present tense of all verbs for first person "I" ends with "o", irrespective of whether the verb is -ar/-er/-ir. Present tense of you always ends in "s" (way to remember is that "you" in English is always treated as plural i.e "you are", so Spanish treats "you" as plural by adding "s" to conjugation), while 3rd person is treated as singular.
2. Past tense for -er/-ir follows -ir form (for all 6 entries), while Fuure tense for -er/-ir follows -er form (for only 3 entries. Other 3 entries follow ar form). It was probably done this way since -ir form got used for past tense, so -er got used for future to keep them little different. Way to remember is "future" has "e" in it, so er verb followed for future.
3. Future tense for any verb is recognized by seeing the full base verb + some suffix. i.e future tense of "I will speak" will be "hablar+é" = hablaré. Way to remember is Future means stretch the word, so the full base word is used. This way it stands out from all the other tenses, which truncate or modify the base infinitive verb.

Link for all tenses for hablar, comer and escribir => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBuls8iWev4

Imperfect and Conditional (simple): Both are grouped in one table below, even though Imperfect is "past", while conditional is "future". This is since Conditional has same suffix as Imperfect (for -er/-ir). The only way to distinguish the 2 is that for Conditional, Base word remains same, while for Imperfect, base is modified to stem.

• Imperfect: It is similar to past tense, but is used where events didn't have specific duration. 2 situations (See in "Past Imperfect verb" section):
  • I was eating => yo estaba comiendo (estar form used with gerund)
  • i used to eat => yo comía
• Conditional: It is similar to future tense, but is used to talk about hypothetical situations and make requests.  (See in "Future tense" section):
  • ex: I would like to go to France => Me gustaría ir a Francia. If it was Imperfect, then it would suffix with -aba for -ar verb i.e I used to like to go to France => Me gustaba ir a Francia. But if it was -er/-ir verb, then there would be no difference b/w Imperfect and conditional.

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Published: Sunday, 10 March 2024 17:00

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Subjunctive and Imperative Moods

Both Subjunctive and Imperative mood are put in same section, as they follow almost the same conjugation rules. As discussed in verb section, verbs have various tenses or types (present, past, etc). However, verbs have moods too. Moods are a totally new concept in Spanish, as there is no such equivalent in English. We always use the same verb in English, whether it's happening or we wish that it happened OR if we were ordering someone to do something. But in Spanish, we have to conjugate these differently. It's ok if you get these mood conjugation wrong, as the meaning will still be conveyed across. So, moods are an advanced concept, and don't really affect your spanish speaking or comprehension.

Subjunctive Mood of Verbs used for wishes: We use these mood of verbs for expressing emotions, desires, and possibilities. It expresses hypothetical, vague or unverified information. It s called subjunctive as it indicates subjectivity of the fact from the viewpoint of the speaker. It is often used in subordinate clauses that follow a main statement. Ex: I wish that it would rain today => Here main clause is "I wish", while subordinate clause is "it would rain today".

One way to memorize what the subjunctive covers is to use the acronym WEIRDO:

• WEIRDO: => This gives the 6 circumstances where Subjunctive mood is used. The main clause of the sentence contains this "WEIRDO" verb, while the next clause has the Subjunctive conjugation of verb. It may be difficult sometimes to know if we should use subjunctive mood or not. Use the "speaker viewpoint" to see if the speaker believes it to be true or it implies WEIRDO from speaker's viewpoint => If so, it's subjunctive.
  
  1. Wishes: ex: I hope he arrives early. ex: We want you to cook dinner.
  2. Emotions/Expressions: ex: I'm really happy you are here.
  3. Impersonal expressions: ex: It's necessary that we have a license before driving.
  4. Recommendations/Requests: ex: I recommend you read that book. ex: She needs to do your homework
  5. Doubts/denials: ex: I doubt he'll be here.
  6. Ojalá (“Hopefully/I wish”): This actually comes from Arabic word which means "God willing". ex: God willing, he arrives on time.

Link (Spanish Tutor) =>  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRvXpo45oHw

RULES for Subjunctive:

• There are always 2 subjects in Subjunctive, and they are different (may be same too). ex: I'm happy you are here => First subject is "I" and other subject is "you".
• Presence of "that" is implied in all subjunctive sentences. When translating, we use "que" for "that" in an all Subjunctive forms. ex: We want you to cook => We want (that) you cook. Here "that" is hidden but needed in Spanish translation. Sometimes, we also use few other words as although (aunque), unless (a no ser que), so that (a fin de que), etc depending on the sentence. It's important to use one of these connecting words.
• As mentioned above, we conjugate verb in the subordinate clause only to it's Subjunctive form.. The main clause which is WEIRDO still follows the normal conjugation table for verb in there.  ex: I hope he arrives early => here "hope" being in the main clause still follows normal conjugation table, while "arrives" being in subordinate clause gets conjugated as per the subjunctive table below. However this rule is true only for most common "Present Subjunctive form". Other forms may have the main clause transformed to subjunctive forms.
• Conjugation tables are really simple. Subjunctive mood have present, past and future tenses in perfect and imperfect forms => Total 6 conjugation tables (see in verb section). They have diff conjugation table for 6 tenses, but only the "present subjunctive" is the one that is used most often. So, just learn that.

Below are the conjugation table for all 3 tenses in Perfect and Imperfect forms.

More detailed info for all 6 forms => https://www.spanishdict.com/guide/spanish-subjunctive

Present/Past/Future (Regular) forms:

1. Present Subjunctive: This  is present perfect form. ex: => I’m sorry (that) they have to leave. Rule is really simple => We just treat -ar verb as -er/-ir verb, and treat -er/-ir verb as -ar verb for conjugation purpose. 

Irregular verb Conjugation: For irregular verbs, the stem is usually taken from 1st person "yo" form, and then -e/-a, -es/-as, etc are conjugated. Imp to note that this first person singular stem is used for all 6 entries of table above.

• tener => yo form is tengo. So, stem teng is used for all forms of subjunctive. Ex: tenga, tengas, tenga, tengamos, tengáis, tengan. We don't use form of tienas or tiena for 2nd, 3rd person as "tien" is not the stem for subjunctive forms.
• hacer => yo form is hago, so stem is hag. Ex: haga, hagas, haga...
• decir (to say): yo form is digo, so stem is "dig". Ex: diga, digas, diga, digamos, digáis, digan.
• There are only 6 irregular verbs which don't follow the above rule: Remember it as DISHES => Dar (dé, des,,,), Ir (vaya, vayas,..), Saber (sepa, sepas,..), Haber (haya, hayas,..), Estar (esté, estés,..), Ser (sea, seas, ..)
  • dar (to give): dé, des,  dé, demos, deis, den
  • ir (to go) => vaya, vayas, vaya, vayamos, vayais, vayan
  • saber => sepa, sepas, sepa, sepamos, sepais, sepan
  • haber => haya, hayas, haya, hayamos, hayais, hayan
  • estar( to be): esté, estés, esté, estemos, esteis, esten
  • ser (to be): sea, seas, sea, seamos, seais, sean

ex:

• I hope (that) he arrives early => Espero que él llegue temprano (instead of "él llega", we use subjunctive form from above table)
• We hope that you cook well => Esperamos que cocines bien.
• I want you to clean the bathroom. => it's equiv to = I want that you clean the bathroom => Yo quiero que tú limpies el baño.
• I doubt that he has my phone number => Dudo que él tenga mi número de teléfono.
• I hope to God he remembers our anniversary => ¡Ojalá que recuerde nuestro aniversario!

2. Imperfect (past) Subjunctive: This  is past subj form, and often refers to a previous experience, but can also refer to unlikely events or possibilities. ex: I wanted you to come to my party => Here past form is in the first clause, so 1st clause is the one that gets the subjunctive conjugation ??

Verb conjugation: To find the conjugation, we get the stem from 3rd person plural of simple past tense of verb (which ends in -aron/-ieron), remove the -ron and replace it with -ra or -se (-ra is more common). 1st person plural has an accent to stress on a or e just preceeding the amos. These verbs look same as future form of verb, but they are used as past tense here.

• hablar => past perfect 3rd person plural is hablaron. remove -aron and replace with -ra, it becomes hablara, hablaras, hablara, habláramos, hablaraéis, hablaran. (or hablase, hablases,...)
• hacer => past perfect 3rd person plural is hicieron. remove -ieron and replace with -ra, it becomes hiciera, hicieras, hiciera, hiciéramos, hicieraéis, hicieran. (or hiciese, hicieses,...)

ex: If I were you, I wouldn’t do it => Si yo fuera tú, no lo haría => Here subjunctive conjugation is for 1st clause, fueron is replaced with subj conjugation feura.

2. Past Perfect Subjunctive: This  is past perfect form and is commonly used to talk about past hypotheticals, conditionals, and past actions preceding other past actions. ex: Mom believed that you had cleaned the room => here "had cleaned" implies past perfect.

The past perfect subjunctive is formed with the imperfect subjunctive of the verb "Haber" and a "past participle" => Stem for haber is hubier, so subjunctive conjugation are hubiera, hubieras, hubiera.... So form is hubiera + Past Participle. Instead of hubier as the stem, an alternative stem "hubies" is also used, i.e hubiese, hubieses, ...,  though hubiera forms are more common

ex: I wish I had known => Ojalá que hubiera/hubiese sabido.

Imperative Mood of Verbs used to give commands: Many times,we use verbs to command someone to do something. These are called Imperative mood of the verb (mandatos in spanish means commands which is like "to mandate something"). For request, permission, etc, we use Imperative mood, though WEIRDO implies Subjunctive mood for request is used too. ex: open the letter. Here "you" is implied, as we always give command to someone else "you open the letter".

So, we use 2nd/3rd person form of the verb in this context (2nd person is used if commanding someone younger, friend, etc. 3rd person is used if commanding someone elder, friend, stranger, etc to give respect to the person). Depending on whether it's affirmative cmd (you do this) vs negative cmd (you do NOT do this), we change the verb ending in a different way than what we do for present tense transformation of these verbs. For almost all cases, we use subjunctive conjugation of verb, except for 2nd person singular affirmative cmd. The 3x2 table is given below.

Video by Spanish Tutor (lesson 54) => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2UnO5khpi4

RULES: We flip the verbs in most cases to indicate it's a cmd (similar to how we did in subjunctive mood).

• For Affirmative commands (i.e cmds of form "Do this"), there are 2 types => indicative and subjunctive form:
  • tú form (informal): For giving cmds to children, other people who are below you, we use "tú" form. We use the "3rd person singular indicative form". This is the only case where indicative verb is used. In all the other case below, subjunctive verbs are used. Think of it this way => When we give affirmative cmd, we want to be polite, so use 3rd person usted form (instead of 2nd person). 2nd person form (with -s at the end) is gone for affirmative cmds.
  • usted form (formal): For giving cmds to your friend, seniors, etc, we use the more respectable "usted form". We use the subjunctive form. So, the 3rd person affirmative form for hablar will be hable (subjunctive form). 
  • We (1st person plural): This is for cases when we order ourselves, ex: Let's eat. We are not commanding here, but it's similar to a cmd. Here, we use subjunctive verb for transformation purpose (similar to usted form above).
• For Negative commands (i.e. cmds of form "Do NOT do this"). There is only 1 type => subjunctive form
  • For all persons (1st/2nd/3rd), we use only one form => the subjunctive form. So, the 2nd person form for hablar will be hables.
• Irregular verbs: There are only 8 irregular verbs which have don't follow the rule above (seems to be irregular for affirmative tú forms only). These are "ven di sal haz ten ve pon se", which you can remember by thinking, "Vin DieSel Has Ten WeaPonS, eh?"  => Ven DiSal Haz Ten VePonS eh.
  • ser (to be) => As expected, Subjunctive tú form is seas, while usted form is sea/sean. But it's affirmative tú form is sé (NOT eres), which is irregular as we saw above.
    
    • Positive: Be kind => sé amable ( tú form).
    • Negative: Don't be selfish! => ¡No seas egoísta!
  • decir (to say): As expected, Subjunctive tú form is digas, while usted form is "diga/digan" (used for all except 2nd person affirmative cmd). However Indicative tú form (used for 2nd person affirmative cmd) is "di" (should have been dices based on Indicative present).

   

Table form for Affirmative/Negative cmds:

Remember: All verbs are subjunctive form except 2nd person Affirmative which is indicative (see green colored entry in table below).  If you want to keep it simple, always use the 3rd person usted form for giving cmds (don't use the 2nd person for giving cmds to someone else). Then all verbs are subjunctive (i.e flipped) and you don't have to worry about flipping or not flipping. This is also being more respectful as you are using usted form. It helps in plural case of "you all" as only usted form exists for this for people outside of spain (since 2nd person plural does not exist anywhere else in world). For affirmative, there's NEVER an "s" at end, while for negative cmds there may be an s at end (if tu form is used, otherwise for usted cmd, there is no s at end),

NOTE: When using 2nd/3rd person, it's hard to say which person form is being used. From the context, it's not clear whether tu or usted form is being used. I've seen a lot of conflicting info on how the 2nd/3rd form singular form is changed/not changed. Not sure which one is correct. Spanish translators give both kind of translations. However, in practice, tu form is more commonly used, since cmds are usually not given with respect (they are cmds, so be disrespectful :). So, for affirmative cmds, we'll mostly see cmds which use verb conjugation w/o flipping and w/o -s at end (i.e abrir becomes abre when commanding), while for negative cmds, you will see flipped verbs with -s at end (i.e No abras OR no abra)The easiest way to give cmds is to just use 3rd person usted form. It's easier for us as explained above.

Ex:

• open the letter => 2 ways you can translate this => depending on whether you are saying this formally or informally.
  
  • 2nd person (tu form, more common) => abre la carta (3rd person indicative form of abrir is used for tu form, which is abre). It's is used when we want to be informal. This is used more often.
  • 3rd person (usted form, less common) => abra la carta (3rd person subjunctiv form of abrir is used for usted form, which is abra). It's used formally to give respect to someone. NOT used that often.
• buy the car => compra el carro (again, this is for "tu" informal order)
• Eat => Come (informal tú form for children), Coma (formal usted form for seniors). Coman (formal, but to a group of people). "Let's eat" => comamos (instead of comemos)
• Close the door => cierra la puerta (cerrar is stem changing verb since it has "e", which changes to ie => cierr as modified stem => 3rd person changes to cierra). Here we are using tu form to give cmd.
• Speak => habla (for informal, 2nd person. unflipped), hable (for formal, 3rd person. flipped). When saying this to group of people, we use hablan (informal) or hablen (formal)
  
  • Don't speak => No hables (Since it's negative cmd, we use 2nd person singular (flipped), which should be hablas, but it's treated as er verb, so hables)
• Write => Escribe (for informal, 2nd person unflipped), escriba (for formal, 3rd person flipped).
  • Don't write => No escribas (for informal, 2nd person flipped), No escriba (for formal, 3rd person flipped). Let's write => escribamos (instead of escribemos)
• Don't learn German => No aprendas aléman (for informal, 2nd person. instead of aprendes we do aprendas, as we treat it as ar verb)

Object Pronouns with cmds: When we use Object pronouns (regular or reflexive pronouns) with cmds (i.e Tell me), the pronoun needs to be attached to the verb for affirmative cmd (but not for negative cmd).

• IOP: Here IOP is added as suffix for Affirmative cmds only.
  • Affirmative:
    • ex: Tell me => Should be "Me diga/digan" (usted form), but instead it's combined into 1 word as "dígame/díganme". Accents added as we need these to make sure "di" is the one that is still emphasized while talking.
    • ex: Let us go => Nos vamos. This is not really a cmd, but for 1st person plural, we can treat it as a cmd to ourselves. Instead of nosotros vamos, we could also write vámonos (vamos + nos, with accent on "a" of vamos). They both mean exactly the same thing.
    • ex: Sit down => siéntate (it's reflexive verb, so te used)
  • Negative:
    • Regular pronoun: ex: Do not Tell me => No me diga/digan (usted form, NOT combined as 1 word).
    • Reflexive pronoun: ex: Don't worry yourself => No se preocupa
• DOP+IOP: Same rule as above where IOP+DOP are added as suffix for Affirmative cmds only. Transform is verb+IOP+DOP (IOP is added first followed by DOP)
  • Affirmative: ex: Tell me it (Tell it to me) => Should be "Me lo diga/digan" (usted form), but instead it's combined into 1 word as "dígamelo/díganmelo". Accents added as we need these to make sure "di" is the one that is still emphasized while talking.
  • Negative: ex: Do not Tell it to me => No me lo diga/digan (usted form, NOT combined as 1 word)

 Permission/Requests: Even though permissions are not really cmds, we use imperative for permissions, requests, etc.

• Dejar (To let or to leave): Here, when we say "Let him do ...", it implies "you let him do ...". you can be tú  or usted form, and depending on that, dejar will conjugate.
  • To let: This is most common usage of dejar where we politely ask for permission. ex: Let me go/speak => déjame ir/hablar. Let me love you => déjame amarte. We used tú form here, which conjugates dejar to deja (3rd person unflipped). If it was usted form, then it would be déjeme (3rd person flipped) instead of déjame. Déjame seems to be most common though.
  • To leave: Dejar also means "to leave"or "to leave something somewhere". ex: Leave me alone => déjame solo OR leave me in peace => déjame en paz. I left the keys here => dejé las laavas aqui (NOT imperative).
  • To quit or abandon something: ex: Quit (leave) talking => ¡Deja de hablar! (tú form). ex: I have to quit (left) smoking => yo tengo que dejar de fumar. One popular phrase is "dejarse llevar" => to let oneself go (reflexive form, NOT imperative)

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Published: Sunday, 10 March 2024 16:28

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Simple Future and Conditional form

I've combined both Future and conditional form into one section as they both follow similar form. Simple Future form is sentences like "I will do this". Simple Conditional form is sentences like "I would do this". They both are referring to things in future though one is hypothetical. Both of these transformations keep the base word same, and just add a suffix. So, remember that if the full infinitive form of the verb is kept, it's always things in future !! The transformation of all verbs (ending in -ar, -er, -ir) is the same, so it's easy to remember.

Similarity with Past tense: One caveat is that past tense for 3rd person plural for -ar verbs ends in -aron. This may make it sound like the full ar verb is being used, and we are just adding -on to it. So, we may confuse it with future form. The only thing that saves us here is that past tense ends in -on, while future form for 3rd person plural always ends in -án (and NOT -on). 

ex: hablar: past tense for 3rd plural is hablaron, while that for future tense is hablarán (with accent). So, remember this subtle difference.

l

Future Tense of -ar, -er, -ir verbs:

Fortunately future tense of all the -ar, -er, -ir verbs follow the same pattern. However, there are many exceptions to this rule that we will learn later. Future tense is "I will go", "she will go to Paris" etc. There is no separate translation for "will" in spanish, we just transform the verb based on table below to indicate "will go", "will eat" in 1 word.

Lesson 51 => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U42loE1zhdw

Below is the transformation table. The thing that is different about future tense is that the base word remains the same, we just add the below suffix to it. The suffix has an accent in all forms except first person plural.

Viajar => To travel: The Spanish verb viajar is an -ar verb translated in English as “to travel”. Below is the table based on above transformation.

Ex:

• I will go tomorrow => yo iré mañana
• She will talk to her boyfriend tonight => Ella hablará con su novio esta noche
• I'll find a nice house some day => encontraré una casa bonita algún día => Here we used "casa bonita" as adjectives come after noun in Spanish. However, "una bonita casa" is also valid.

Conditional (condicional simple) of -ar, -er, -ir verbs:

This is closely related to future form. But it's used to talk about hypothetical situations and make requests. Ex: "Would you pass the water?", "He should take out the trash", "It could rain tomorrow", etc. They indicate kind of future event, so they are called "future conditional". Just like future tense, all -ar, -er, -ir verbs follow the same pattern and base word remains the same (we just add suffix based on table below). The table below follows the same table as "past imperfect tense" for -er/-ir verbs (i.e -ia, -ias, -ia, etc). 

Below is the transformation table. Here too the base word remains the same, we just add the below suffix to it. The suffix has an accent in all forms on the letter "i" (only the 1st i in suffix).

NOTE: This suffix "ía" etc is the same as that used in "Past Imperfect form" (i.e used to go, etc). The only difference is that it goes with the full base word here (i.e gustar + ía = gustaría), while in Past Imperfect, it goes with the stem (i.e gust + ía = gustía)

Would, Could, Should are the 3 most commonly used conditional verbs. They are most commonly used with "have", i.e I would have, he should have, etc. We see the 3 forms below.

1. Would

There is no separate translation for "would" in spanish, we just transform the verb based on table below to indicate "would like to", "would you pass" in 1 word (just as in Future tense). Here the verb "like", "pass", change based on above form.

ex: Below we see the table for "would know". Here "know" is transformed based on table above, and that implies "would know".

Conocer => To know: The Spanish verb conocer is an -er verb translated in English as “to know”. Below is the table based on above transformation. 

Ex: (NOTE: no separate transformation for would, the verb following "would" is conjugated based on table above)

• I would go tomorrow => yo iría mañana
• I would have eaten => yo habría comido. Here haber is changed to habría. eaten is transformed to "past participle" form which is com+ido.
  • NOTE: Another commonly used form for "would have" is "had" which is not 100% correct bookish form, but used frequently in regular conversations to imply "would have". "had" is conjugated as "hubriera".
    • ex: I would have been => yo hubiera sido. hubiera is past participle for have, which is "had". So, this sentence means "I had been". 
• She would like to read this book => ella le gustaría leer este libro (gustar is backward verb, so le gustaria used)
• I would like to order a pizza => me gustaría ordernar una pizza

2. Could

"Could" is another conditional form just like "would". ex: It could rain tomorrow. It's base verb is "can" or "poder" in spanish. So For could, we have separate verb "poder" to translate, while for "would" we have no separate verb, but instead conjugate the verb that follows "would".

 ex: Below we see the table for "could". 

Poner => Can: The Spanish verb poner is explained under -er verb. It's conditional transformation is "could" and used very often, i.e it could rain tomorrow, etc. Below is the table based on above transformation. Stem is "podr" instead of poner for future tense.

ex: NOTE: Here "could" is conjugated based on table above, the verb following it is kept in infinitive form)

• It could rain tomorrow => podría llover mañana
• It could have been .. => podría haber sido (been is past participle form). "have" is kept in infinitive form, while been is in "past participle" form.
  • NOTE: Similar to alternate form of "would have", we have alternate form for "could have". One commonly used form for "could have" is past form of "can" which is not 100% correct in bookish form, but used frequently in regular conversations to imply "could have". "could have" is conjugated to past tense form as "pudiste/pudo haber".
    • ex: It could have been worse => pudo haber sido peor.
• We could have helped you => podríamos haberte ayudado. Here "you" is attached to "have" as is common. "helped" is in past participle form, so conjugated as "ayudar + ado"
• I could do it => yo podría hacerlo
• You could go => tú podrías ir
• could you pass me the salt? =>  ¿podrías pasarme la sal?
• Could you tell me the time? => ¿podrías darme la hora?

3. Should (must)

Should is used in same way as "must". I can say "You should do this" instead of "you must do this". We use the verb for "must" which is "deber", and conjugate it to conditional form.Below is conditional form for deber,

Deber => Must or have to: The Spanish verb deber is an -er verb translated in English as “must”. Below is the table based on above transformation. 

There are 2 forms of should (or must):

1. Present tense: Below ex shows the regular present tense use of "should" or "must".
   • ex: You should (must) eat more vegetables => tú debes comer más verduras
2. Conditional future form: If we want to form conditional future tense of this, then we need to add "have".
   1. ex: You should (must) have eaten more vegetables => tú deberías haber comido más verduras
      1. NOTE: Similar to alternate form of "could have", we have similar past tense form for "should have". "should have" is conjugated to past tense form as "debiste haber".
         • ex: you should have come => debiste haber venido. Word by word, it means "you must had come". To be exact, it should be " tú deberías haber venido"
      2. Another commonly used form is, where we omit "must" or "deber" completely (since it gets too long) and only use "had". This translation is exactly same as for "would have", but it means both "would have" and "should have" in informal spanish.
         1. ex: You should have told me => me hubieras dicho. Word by word, it means, "you had told me", but it gets the same sentiment across. 
   2. ex: You should have woken up earlier => tú deberías haberse despertado antes