Conditional Verbs

What are Conditional Verbs?

Conditional Verbs are verb structures used in conditional sentences to describe a hypothetical outcome that is dependent on another conditional situation being true. These sentences often use the conjunction if with one of the verbs to show the conditional situation, and often use modal-auxiliary verbs (can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must) to describe the hypothetical outcome.

Examples:

1. “I would have been late if I had not woken up early.”
"I would have been late" here is the hypothetical/expected outcome. One of the clues is the modal auxiliary verb would. It is dependent upon the conditional situation “if I had not woken up early”. One of the clues indicating that it is a conditional situation is the word "if".

2. "It will be tasteless if I do not put the salt."
"It will be tasteless" is the hypothetical outcome because of the modal auxiliary verb "will". And it relies upon the conditional situation “if I do not put the salt”.

The verbs in the conditional clauses are the conditional verbs.