Il Condizionale, or 'How to not sound like a jerk'

I'm plugging along with my lessons in Babbel, and lately, I've been coming up on a lot of phrases that include the word vorrei.

Of course, I'm dying to know more about what vorrei means, how you form it and when you should use it. So lets start from the beginning:

Vorrei means "I would like..." It expresses a polite request.

It's a verb that has been conjugated into Il Condizionale, the conditional mood. The conditional mood in Italian is used to express wishes, polite requests, hypothetical situations or suggestions — essentially what someone "would like," "would do" or "should do." It's critical for polite conversation in Italian.

It's equivalent to English constructions with "would _____."

Vorrei comes from the infinitive volere, which means "to want."

To transform a regular verb into the conditional mood, you can conjugate it with a specific ending

Let's do examples for the three main conjugation groups in Italian:

  1. -are verbs: e.g., parlare (to speak)
  2. -ere verbs: e.g., scrivere (to write)
  3. -ire verbs e.g., dormire (to sleep)

Parlare (to speak):

Note that the stem vowel on an -are verb changes from A to E in the conditional.

  • Io parlerei (I would speak)
  • Tu parleresti (You would speak)
  • Lui/Lei parlerebbe (He/She would speak)
  • Noi parleremmo (We would speak)
  • Voi parlereste (You all would speak)
  • Loro parlerebbero (They would speak)

Scrivere (to write):

  • Io scriverei (I would write)
  • Tu scriveresti (You would write)
  • Lui/Lei scriverebbe (He/She would write)
  • Noi scriveremmo (We would write)
  • Voi scrivereste (You all would write)
  • Loro scriverebbero (They would write)

Dormire (to sleep):

  • Io dormirei (I would sleep)
  • Tu dormiresti (You would sleep)
  • Lui/Lei dormirebbe (He/She would sleep)
  • Noi dormiremmo (We would sleep)
  • Voi dormireste (You all would sleep)
  • Loro dormirebbero (They would sleep)

And when it comes to irregular verbs, you just gotta memorize them

Let's do our two favorite irregular verbs.

Essere (to be):

  • Io sarei (I would be)
  • Tu saresti (You would be)
  • Lui/Lei sarebbe (He/She would be)
  • Noi saremmo (We would be)
  • Voi sareste (You all would be)
  • Loro sarebbero (They would be)

Avere (to have):

  • Io avrei (I would have)
  • Tu avresti (You would have)
  • Lui/Lei avrebbe (He/She would have)
  • Noi avremmo (We would have)
  • Voi avreste (You all would have)
  • Loro avrebbero (They would have)

Idiom of the day

Prendere due piccioni con una fava.

"Literally, to catch two pigeons with one bean." This is equivalent to the English phrase "To kill two birds with one stone." It means achieving two results with a single effort or action.