Conditional (würde)

The conditional with würde: The conditional (der Konditional) is how German says «would». The everyday way to build it is würde + Infinitiv at the end: «Ich würde mehr reisen.» (I would travel more.) You use it for hypothetical situations («Ich würde ein Haus kaufen»), to be polite («Ich hätte gern einen Kaffee», «Könntest du mir helfen?») and to soften advice. A few common verbs prefer their own short Konjunktiv-II form instead of würde: wäre (would be), hätte (would have), könnte (could).

der Konditional / der Konjunktiv II

the conditional («would + verb»); German builds it with the subjunctive II

würde + Infinitiv

the everyday conditional: würde + the infinitive at the end («ich würde gehen»)

der Infinitiv

the infinitive — the whole, unchanged verb that goes to the end of the clause

wäre / hätte / könnte

the short Konjunktiv-II forms of sein/haben/können, used instead of würde

hypothetisch

hypothetical — something imagined or unreal

die Höflichkeit

politeness — softening a request («Ich hätte gern…»)

When you reach for it: If you want to say «would», be polite («Ich hätte gern…», «Würdest du…?»), or describe what you'd do if something were true — it's the conditional. It's the tense that makes your German sound mature and courteous.

würde + Infinitiv → verb to the end: Conjugate only würde (the Konjunktiv II of werden) for the person; the main verb stays an infinitive and moves to the end of the clause. So «Ich würde gern nach Berlin fahren.» The infinitive never changes — only würde does.

Use the short form for sein, haben & modals: For sein, haben and the modal verbs, Germans prefer the short Konjunktiv-II form, NOT würde: say «Ich wäre froh» (not «ich würde sein froh») and «Ich hätte gern…» (not «ich würde haben»). For almost everything else, würde + Infinitiv is natural and always correct.

Three everyday jobs: The conditional does several jobs. Here are the three you meet most — each with a German example. Hypothesis and politeness are by far the most useful for your speaking and writing.

The polite phrases worth memorising: Three conditional phrases earn easy marks for tone: «Ich hätte gern + Akkusativ» (I would like…), «Ich möchte + Infinitiv» (I would like to…) and «Könntest du / Würdest du + Infinitiv?» (could you / would you…?). They turn a blunt «Ich will» into a courteous request — exactly the register examiners reward.

What I would do, sentence by sentence: Here's a short paragraph about an imagined life, built one sentence at a time. Every clause uses the conditional — watch the infinitive jump to the end after würde («würde … reisen»), and the short form müsste. Read it once for the meaning, then tap Übersetzung anzeigen for the English or 🔊 to hear it.

Steal this for «Was würdest du tun?»: Notice the pattern: «Wenn ich … hätte/wäre» (an unreal if) + a string of würde-clauses (würde reisen, würde suchen). Swap in your own dreams and you have a ready-made answer for «Was würdest du tun, wenn…?» Keep the infinitive at the end of every würde-clause.

The slips to watch for: The big trap is word order: with würde + Infinitiv the infinitive goes to the end of the clause («Ich würde gern nach Wien fahren»), never straight after würde. The second slip is using würde with sein/haben/modals where Germans use the short form (wäre, hätte, könnte). The third is confusing the conditional with the future (werde) — they look similar but mean different things.

Infinitive to the end, short forms for sein/haben/modals: Two rules save marks: send the infinitive to the end after würde, and use wäre / hätte / könnte / möchte for sein, haben and modal verbs instead of würde. And don't mix up würde (would) with werde (will).