the Conditional Mood

1. Using conditional mood

to talk about things that would happen or that would be true under certain conditions.

You can often recognize a conditional in English by the word would or its shortened form ‘d.

In German, the conditional is also used to express would.

The conditional tense is often used with the subjunctive or würde form of werden

Ich würde dir schon helfen, ich habe aber keine Zeit.	I would help you, but I don’t have the time.
Ich würde dir helfen, wenn ich könnte.	I would help you if I could.
Was würden Sie an meiner Stelle tun?	What would you do in my position?

2.    Forming the conditional mood with würde

The subjunctive or würde form of werden (meaning to become) + the infinitive of the main verb, which normally goes at the end of the clause.

Das würde ich nie machen.	I would never do that.
Würdest du mir etwas Geld leihen?	Would you lend me some money?
Würden Sie jemals mit dem Rauchen aufhören?	Would you ever stop smoking?

Pronoun	Subjunctive of werden	Infinitive of Main Verb	Meanings
ich	würde	holen	I would fetch
du	würdest	holen	you would fetch
er sie es	würde	holen	he/she/it would fetch
wir	würden	holen	we would fetch
ihr	würdet	holen	you (plural) would fetch
sie Sie	würden	holen	they would fetch you (polite) would fetch

Note: Do not mix up.

• The subjunctive (würde form) of werden is used to form the conditional.
• The present tense of werden is used to form the future tense.
• The passive tense is formed by using werden + the past participle

Eg. The conditional forms of the passive

Die Wohnung würde durchsucht werden.	The apartment would be searched.
Die Wohnung wäre durchsucht worden*.	The apartment would have been searched.

*In this context, the participle of werden is worden.