Which sentence is impossible in Spanish?

Si hubiera llovido, no habríamos salido.

Si tuviera plata, compraría esa casa. What does this tell you about the speaker?

They will check their account first.

The three Spanish conditionals, side by side

Short answer

Spanish has three if-patterns. Si plus the present indicative for something likely: si tengo tiempo, voy. Si plus the past subjunctive with the conditional for something unlikely: si tuviera tiempo, iría. Si plus the pluperfect subjunctive for the past that never happened: si hubiera tenido tiempo, habría ido.

Course · Unit: Conditionals CEFR B2 Reviewed by Jhoslyn Updated 2026-09-12

Draft copy. Every claim needs a native-speaker check before publishing — the byline is what makes this citable, so it has to be earned.

Three sentences, three different claims

Same idea, three versions, and the difference is not politeness or formality — it is what the speaker believes:

Si tengo plata, compro esa casa. — I may well have the money. Si tuviera plata, compraría esa casa. — I don’t have it. Si hubiera tenido plata, habría comprado esa casa. — I didn’t have it, and the chance is gone.

Choosing the wrong one does not sound clumsy. It says something untrue about the world. Si tuviera plata to a friend who knows you have savings reads as either a joke or a lie.

The table

	The si half	The other half	What it claims
Real	present indicative — si llueve	present, future, or a command — no salimos / no saldremos / no salgas	It might well happen
Unlikely	past subjunctive — si lloviera	conditional — no saldríamos	It probably won’t, or it isn’t so
Impossible	pluperfect subjunctive — si hubiera llovido	conditional perfect — no habríamos salido	It didn’t happen

Two things to notice. The si half never once takes the plain future or the conditional. And the subjunctive never once appears in the result half — it lives only after si.

The rule that fixes the commonest error

The si clause never takes the present subjunctive.

Si tengo — yes. Si tenga — impossible, in any sentence, ever.

This trips people up because they have just learned that cuando, aunque and en cuanto take the subjunctive when the event has not happened yet. Si does not behave like them. Cuando llegue, te aviso — subjunctive. Si llego temprano, te aviso — indicative. Same uncertainty, different word, different rule.

The second version of the same error is si tendría or si habría. Also impossible. If the sentence is hypothetical, the conditional belongs in the other half:

Si tendría tiempo, iría. — wrong
Si tuviera tiempo, iría. — right

The halves can come from different types

Real sentences mix them, and the mix is not sloppy — it is precise. A past cause with a present consequence:

Si hubiera estudiado medicina, ahora sería doctor. If I had studied medicine, I’d be a doctor now.

The si half is the impossible past; the result half uses the simple conditional because the consequence is about today. Compare:

Si hubiera estudiado más, habría aprobado el examen.

Here both halves are in the past, so the result half is the conditional perfect. Ask what time the consequence lands in, and pick accordingly.

Which one you actually need

Most days, the first. Real conditionals are ordinary speech:

Si quieres, te acompaño.
Si no hay taxi, tomamos la combi.
Si tienes frío, ponte la chompa.

The second comes up for wishes, advice and softening — yo que tú, si pudiera, lo pensaría. The third is mostly regret and blame, and in Peru it usually turns up with hubiera doing double duty in both halves, which is a lesson of its own.

Try it

Name the type, then fix anything wrong:

Si llueve, no vamos a la playa.
Si tenga plata, viajaría.
Si hubieras avisado, te habríamos esperado.
Si fuera tú, no diría nada.

→ 1 real, correct. · 2 broken twice — si cannot take the present subjunctive; it should be Si tuviera plata, viajaría. · 3 impossible, correct. · 4 unlikely, correct — si fuera tú is the standard “if I were you”.

→ Real conditionals: si + present → Unreal conditionals: if I had, I would have → The past subjunctive → Hubiera and hubiese

Topics Conditionals Subjunctive

Which si-sentence do you mean?

Picking the wrong conditional is not a style slip — it says something untrue about the world. Seven choices, including the one that is simply impossible.

1Si ___ plata, compraría esa casa. (The speaker does not have the money.)
Answer

tuviera — An unlikely condition is *si* plus the past subjunctive, with the conditional in the other half. *Si tendría* and *si tenga* are both impossible.
2Si ___ tiempo, te acompaño. (Quite possibly I will have time.)
Answer

tengo — A real condition is *si* plus the present indicative. The other half can be a present, a *voy a* future or a command.
3Which sentence is impossible in Spanish?
Answer

Si llueva, no salimos. — *Si* never takes the present subjunctive, in any sentence. *Cuando llueva* is fine — but *si* does not behave like *cuando*.
4Si hubiera estudiado medicina, ahora ___ doctor.
Answer

sería — The cause sits in the impossible past but the consequence is about today, so the simple conditional. *Habría sido* would push the consequence back into the past too.
5Si me hubieran ofrecido café, lo ___.
Answer

habría aceptado — Both halves are in the past, so the result takes the conditional perfect. In Peruvian speech you will also hear *lo hubiera aceptado* for the same thing.
6Si tuviera plata, compraría esa casa. What does this tell you about the speaker?
Answer

They do not have the money. — The unlikely conditional says the condition is not met. That is why the choice matters: it is a claim about the world, not a matter of tone.
7Si quieres dormir, ___ a la habitación.
Answer

ve — A real conditional can end in a command, and the command form of *ir* is *ve*. The *si* half stays in the present indicative throughout.