Imagined situations
Are we talking about a fact or something we imagine?
Meaning
We can talk about a situation as something we imagine rather than as a fact. This lets us explore possibilities, picture a different past, or express a wish. Languages may use special verb forms, helper words, or context; some have no separate form for imagined situations. Condition makes one situation depend on another, while Imagined situations concerns whether we present something as imagined, with or without a condition.
How to spot it
Look for forms, words, or context that present a situation as imagined, wished for, or different from what actually happened.
In your native language
English often uses past forms to describe an imagined present or future, not just past time. Would, could, or might can show the imagined result of a condition. To imagine a different past, English commonly uses if with had and the past participle, the verb's third form such as gone, and would have with that form for the result.
If I lived closer, I would walk to work.
Lived is a past form, but it describes an imagined present situation.
If we had left earlier, we would have caught the bus.
The speaker imagines a different past: they did not leave early enough to catch the bus.
I wish I had a bigger kitchen.
Had describes a wish about the present, not something the speaker had in the past.
In your learning language
Spanish uses the conditional tense (condicional) to present an imagined action or outcome. An unlikely or unreal condition uses si with the past subjunctive (imperfecto de subjuntivo), while an unreal past uses patterns such as si hubiera salido with habría llegado. Ojalá introduces wishes, and a past subjunctive form often presents a wish as unlikely or contrary to the current situation.
Si tuviera más tiempo, cocinaría todos los días.
If I had more time, I would cook every day.
Tuviera presents the imagined condition, and cocinaría presents its result.
Si hubiera salido antes, no habría perdido el autobús.
If I had left earlier, I wouldn't have missed the bus.
These forms imagine a different past: the speaker did miss the bus.
Ojalá estuvieras aquí.
I wish you were here.
The past subjunctive expresses a wish that differs from the present situation.
Learners whose language uses the same conditional form in both parts of an imagined situation may say *Si tendría tiempo, cocinaría. Spanish normally uses Si tuviera tiempo, cocinaría, with different forms in the condition and its imagined result.