Konjunktiv II

German has a form for things that are not facts: wishes, hypotheticals, and polite requests. It is called Konjunktiv II, and in practice it is three memorised words plus one pattern.

The three carry most of the everyday load:

würde plus infinitive covers almost everything

For nearly every verb, you do not need a special form at all. Take würde and put the infinitive at the end.

Ich würde gern nach Berlin fahren. — I would like to go to Berlin.

Das würde ich nicht sagen. — I would not say that.

This is the safe default for most lexical verbs. With sein, haben, the modal verbs and a few very common verbs, the one-word forms below are shorter and more idiomatic.

Except for these, where the real form is normal

With a small group, the würde construction sounds clumsy and native speakers use the proper Konjunktiv form instead. These are worth knowing as vocabulary.

Notice the shape: the simple past plus an umlaut. ich war becomes ich wäre; ich hatte becomes ich hätte; ich konnte becomes ich könnte. sollte and wollte have no umlaut to add, so they look identical to their past tense and context does the separating.

Politeness is the everyday use

This is where a learner meets it first, and where using it matters most. The direct form is not rude exactly, but it is blunt in a way that gets noticed.

Ich hätte gern is the single most useful phrase in this guide. It is how you order anything in a café, shop or restaurant, and it is worth learning as a fixed unit before you understand the grammar behind it.

Hypotheticals: wenn plus two Konjunktiv verbs

For "if this, then that", both halves take the Konjunktiv form.

Wenn ich mehr Zeit hätte, würde ich mehr lesen.

— If I had more time, I would read more.

wenn also sends its verb to the end, as always — see weil, dass, wenn.

You can drop wenn entirely and start with the verb, which sounds more written than spoken:

Hätte ich mehr Zeit, würde ich mehr lesen.

Talking about the past that did not happen

For most regrets and might-have-beens, use hätte or wäre with a past participle. A modal verb uses the special double-infinitive pattern shown in the first example.

Ich hätte das nicht sagen sollen. — I should not have said that.

Das wäre besser gewesen. — That would have been better.

Choose hätte or wäre from the verb's normal perfect auxiliary: ich bin gegangen becomes ich wäre gegangen; ich habe gesagt becomes ich hätte gesagt. Perfekt or Präteritum sets that split out.

What to actually memorise

Memorise ich hätte gern, könntest du and ich wäre. Use würde plus an infinitive for ordinary lexical verbs, while keeping the common one-word forms in the table as complete chunks.