si + Indicative/Subjunctive
Mood Restrictions in Si Clauses
Conditional constructions distinguish open, remote and unreal past situations through different tense combinations.
How It Works
Si tingués temps, vindria treats having time as a remote or imagined condition. The imperfect subjunctive describes that hypothetical status; it need not locate the condition in the past. The usual consequence has a conditional verb.
Ordinary conditional si uses present indicative for an open future condition, imperfect subjunctive for a remote present or future one, and pluperfect subjunctive for a counterfactual past. Si vindrà can nevertheless occur in a different construction, an indirect question such as no sé si vindrà. Do not reject every future form after the written word si without determining whether it means if as a condition or whether as a question.
Examples (3)
- Si vens, parlarem.
If you come, we will talk.
- Si vinguessis, parlaríem.
If you came, we would talk.
- Si haguessis vingut, hauríem parlat.
If you had come, we would have talked.
How It Connects
Learn This First
Build an imperfect-subjunctive remote condition before refining its time and stance. Match a remote condition with its appropriate main-clause consequence. Place an unreal or nonasserted event before a past viewpoint.
- si + Imperfect SubjunctiveImperfect Subjunctive in Hypothetical Si-Clauses
Build an imperfect-subjunctive remote condition before refining its time and stance.
Level 4 - Conditional in Hypothetical Main Clauses
Match a remote condition with its appropriate main-clause consequence.
Level 4 - Pluperfect Subjunctive
Place an unreal or nonasserted event before a past viewpoint.
Level 4
Words in This Pattern
Practice si + Indicative/Subjunctive in Bubblegum
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