‘Conditional’ indicates that the action of the verb depends on something else to happen under certain conditions or circumstances . A useful way to remember this is to think of the phrase ‘If this, then that.’ The conditional often uses words like might, could, and would.
The baby might cry if you pick him up.
This verb sentence shows what could happen under the condition of picking up the baby, so it’s an example of the conditional mood.
Another example of a verb using the conditional mood is:
He would look older with a beard.
This shows that the man looking older depends on whether or not he has a beard, so under that specific condition, he would appear to have aged.