📖LearnModule 6 · Lesson 11 of 30Independent User · CEFR B1, first halfUnit 3 · El condicional — would, could, should
Me gustaría — the polite conditional
Module 6 of the free Spanish course (CEFR B1, first half), lesson 11 of 30: You have said me gustaría and quisiera since the Basic band. On this page: 8 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
me gustaría un boleto
I would like a ticket
meh goos-tah-REE-ah oon boh-LEH-toh
el boleto
the ticket
ehl boh-LEH-toh
¿podría repetir, por favor?
could you repeat, please?
poh-DREE-ah rreh-peh-TEER pohr fah-BOHR
quisiera
I would like
kee-SYEH-rah
cortésmente
politely
kohr-TEHS-mehn-teh
la petición
the request
lah peh-tee-SYOHN
tú podrías ayudarme
you could help me
too poh-DREE-ahs ah-yoo-DAR-meh
con mucho gusto
with pleasure
kohn MOO-choh GOOS-toh
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
La regla · The rule
You have said me gustaría and quisiera since the Basic band. Me gustaría was the condicional all along: the infinitive plus the imperfecto endings of -er verbs — -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -ían. Gustar gives gustaría; poder gives podría.
Y también · And also
¿Podría repetir, por favor? Me gustaría un boleto para Lima. The conditional is Spanish politeness in one tense — the difference between want and would like. Quisiera (I would like) is even softer, and every shop in the Spanish-speaking world hears it daily.
Ojo · Watch out
podría has two readings, I could and you could (polite), because the yo and usted forms are the same: podría. And quisiera is one fixed polite word — do not try to conjugate it yet.
querer, condicional — the table
yo querría · tú querrías · él/ella/usted querría · nosotros querríamos · ustedes querrían · ellos/ellas querrían
poder, condicional — the table
yo podría · tú podrías · él/ella/usted podría · nosotros podríamos · ustedes podrían · ellos/ellas podrían
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with me gustaría un boleto.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out querer, condicional and poder, condicional in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.