Professor Dave again, let’s continue with conditional and modal verbs.
Now that we are clear on the use of the present conditional tense with the three modal verbs,
potere, volere, and dovere, let’s go over usage of the past conditional with these verbs as well.
As we know, for this tense, the auxiliary verbs avere and essere will be conjugated,
and then followed by the participle of the verb, which for these three will be potuto,
voluto, and dovuto.
We should first point out that these verbs can use either auxiliary, and conform to the
auxiliary required by the verb that they serve.
As expected, when using essere, the past participle will have to agree with the subject in gender
and number.
Let’s go through the forms now.
As we can guess from what we know about this tense, these phrases will help us say things
like I could have, I would have, or I should have.
We must notice that these three verbs will always use the auxiliary essere when used
with intransitive or reflexive verbs.
Let’s finish with just a few more examples.
And that wraps up our study of the conditional mood, in the present and past tenses, and
with the modal verbs.
Let’s check comprehension.