Conditional form of the verb

In English conditional is formed with the helping verb would (or sometimes could / should). Finnish language has it's own ending -isi for conditional. The ending is added between the stem and the personal ending as follows:

stem	conditional ending	personal ending	other optional suffixes
kysy	isi	n	kö
would I ask

Positive conditional

conditional conjugation, positive
Present singular		Present plural
minä kysyisin	I would ask	me kysyisimme	we would ask
sinä kysyisit	you would ask	te kysyisitte	you would ask
hän kysyisi	he/she would ask	he kysyisivät	they would ask

The stem is quite regular:

if the stem ends with i, you drop it (no double i), for example voida: voin : voisin (I could).
if the stem ends with a long vowel, it becomes short, for example jäädä : jään : jäisin (I would stay), especially in verb type 2.
if the stem ends with e, you drop it, for example lukea: luen : lukisin (I would read), especially with verb type 3.

Negative conditional

The idea in negative conditional is the same as in "normal" negative sentence: you use the negative verb (en, et, ei...) and the main verb without the personal enging, but with the conditional ending -isi.

conditional conjugation, negative
Present singular		Present plural
minä en kysyisi	I wouldn't ask	me emme kysyisi	we wouldn't ask
sinä et kysyisi	you wouldn't ask	te ette kysyisi	you wouldn't ask
hän ei kysyisi	he/she wouldn't ask	he eivät kysy	they wouldn't ask

When to use conditional?

Most typically conditinals are used in if-statements. Note, that in Finnish the verbs in both phrases are in contitional (unlike in English).

Matkustaisin maailman ympäri, jos voittaisin lotossa.: I would traval around the world, if I won in the lottery.

Conditional is also used when you want to be polite:

Sulkisitko ikkunan.: Would you close the window, please.
Voisitko auttaa vähän?: Could you help me a little?

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