“Si tuviera tiempo…”
CEFR B1 · part 2
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
“Es aburrido” is not “está aburrido”The adjectives whose meaning changes with the verb: “aburrido”, “listo”, “rico”…False friends: “embarazada” is not embarrassedThe words that look like an English word and mean something else: “embarazada”…“Dijo que…”: reporting what somebody saidTurning direct speech into “dijo que…”, moving the tense, the person, the possessives…“Busco a alguien que hable inglés”Choosing indicative or subjunctive after “que” depending on whether the person or thing…“Tan”, “tanto”, “tal”: one “so”, three wordsUsing “tan” with adjectives and adverbs, “tanto” with verbs and nouns —agreeing— and…“Ser” or “estar”: two verbs for one “to be”Choosing between “ser” and “estar” in everyday sentences: who you are and what you are…The rule, in three lines
Real condition: si tengo tiempo, voy — present and present, no subjunctive at all. Unreal condition: si tuviera tiempo, iría — imperfect subjunctive after si, conditional in the other half. The one thing a CONDITIONAL si never does is take a future or a conditional after it — and that is worth stating carefully, because the OTHER si, the one that reports a question, takes them happily: no sé si vendrá, me preguntó si querría café. The ban is on the si that sets a condition, not on the word.
The usual slip. Si tendría tiempo… — the conditional in the wrong half. It is the single most recognisable mistake at this level.
Why it catches you out. English does the same thing with different labels: “if I HAD time, I WOULD go” — a past form after “if” and “would” in the other half. The trap is that “would” and “tendría” look alike, so you reach for the Spanish conditional and put it in the half where English put the past.