German Conditional Tense, What it is and how to use it

German Conditional Tense

German Conditional Tense

Okay, first let’s deal with what the German conditional tense means. It’s one of the more specialised tenses as it deals with a specific situation. This situation is something that would happen or would be true under certain conditions.

For example:
I would buy you a ring if I had the money.
I would help him if I could.

In this blog we’ll first show you when the conditional tense is used and how to form it. As always we have included some easy to follow example sentences that will help bring clarity to this aspect of German. Learn and enjoy the German language with Jabbalab! 🙂

When is the German conditional tense used?

It’s quite easy to identify when to use the conditional tense. In English it is identifiable by the word would or an abbreviation e.g. we’d (we would).


How to form the German conditional tense?

The conditional tense is formed in two parts.

  • The first part is the würde form of the verb werden. You may see this referred to as the subjunctive but it‘s easier to remember würde.
  • The second part is the infinitive form of the verb which is usually placed at the end of the sentence.

The verb würde

Pronoun würde Meaning
ich würde I would
du würdest you would
er / sie / es würde he / she / it would
wir würden we would
ihr würdet you would
sie / Sie würden they / you would

Example sentences:
I would buy a Ferrari if I had more money. ⇨ Ich würde einen Ferrari kaufen, wenn ich mehr Geld hätte.

We would go to the beach if it was sunny. ⇨ Wir würden zum Strand gehen, wenn es sonnig wäre.

Would you ever ride a motorcycle? ⇨ Würdest du jemals ein Motorrad fahren?

I would go to the cinema if I had the time. ⇨ Ich würde ins Kino gehen, wenn ich Zeit hätte.

What would you do with a million Euros? ⇨ Was würdet ihr mit einer Millionen Euro machen?

Share this: