The conditional tense · Yr amodol

The conditional tense is the ‘would’, ‘could’ or ‘should’ tense. Using the conditional tense will help you describe things that might happen in the future or things you would like to do, such as:

• where you would like to go on holiday, and
• what you could do on the weekend.

In Welsh, the conditional tense is formed by changing the end of a verb.

• The verb ending has two jobs. It tells us that the action might happen in the future, and it tells us who is doing the action.

• The conditional tense is also used to make polite requests, for example you could use ‘Hoffwn i…’ (I would like…) to ask for something politely.

When talking about things you would like to happen in the future, you could use:

Hoffwn i(I would like to)

For example:
Hoffwn i fynd i Ffrainc(I would like to go to France)
Hoffwn i weld y gêm(I would like to see the game)

To talk about someone else, you will need to change the verb ending.

Singular:

To name the person doing the action, you will use the following form:
-ai Seren.

Plural:

Example:

To change ‘Hoffwn i’ (I would like to) into ‘They would like to’, all you need to do is swap the verb ending.

For example:
Hoffwn i → Hoff → Hoffen nhw

These endings will also work for the following conditional tense verbs:Baswn i(I would)
Gallwn i(I could)
Dylwn i(I should)

Example:

Basai o’n chwarae pêl-droed(He would play football)
Gallet ti fwynhau’r parti(You could enjoy the party)
Dylai Seren ddweud “helô”(Seren should say “hello”)

When using ‘Baswn i’ you do need to add ‘yn’ before forming the rest of the sentence.

When ‘yn’ comes after a word ending in a vowel, it joins onto that word and becomes ‘’n’.

‘’n’ is just a shorter form of ‘yn’.

Examples:

Baswn i+yn+dewis → Baswn i’n dewis(I would choose)

Basech chi+yn+hoffi → Basech chi’n hoffi(You would love)

To ask someone a question in the conditional tense, you could use the pattern:

Hoffet ti… ?(Would you like to… ?)

For example:
Hoffet ti fynd i Baris?(Would you like to go to Paris?)

To answer a ‘Hoffet ti… ?’ question, you can simply say:

Example:

Hoffet ti helpu yn y siop?(Would you like to help in the shop?)
Hoffwn.(Yes, I would.)
Na hoffwn.(No, I wouldn’t.)