USE OF THE CONDITIONAL PAST

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Is a compound tense of the conditional mood.
Is formed by the present conditional of the auxiliary verb (avere o essere) and the past participle.

These are the main uses of the conditional past:

• indicates an action that could have happened in the past.

  Example:
  "Ieri avrei voluto telefonarti."

• indicates the consequence of an unreal hypothetical period (III kind)

  Example:
  "Se tu mi avessi avvertito ti sarei venuta a prendere alla stazione."

• inside a sentence in the past indicates a future event

  Example:
  "Marco disse che sarebbe venuto il giorno dopo."

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