The teaching of the canonical verb forms cantaria and habria cantado has a multitude of denominations and contextual values or uses, which diverge between grammars and manuals for teaching Spanish as a foreign language (SFL). The choice of one or another denomination by the designer of the teaching material reflects a certain conceptualisation of the verb form, whether modal (conditional), formal (simple), temporal (antepospreterite), etc. The same applies when explaining their uses, which include the values of attenuation, suggestion, hypothesis, etc. Given the disparity of denominations that label the uses in teaching materials, we consider that there are relevant didactic implications in the specialised discourse that can be used in teaching practice. This research addresses the explanation of the verb forms cantaria and habria cantado in a corpus of 30 SFL grammars and 25 SFL textbooks. Our general aim is to shed light on the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application in the design of ELE materials by identifying discrepancies in the use of metalanguage in the explanation of the aforementioned verb forms. The specific objectives are to design an instrument for analysing the contextual values or uses of verb forms organised into categories, and to contrast the frequency of appearance of the terminology used and the prototypical and non-prototypical contextual values to explain the forms cantaria and habria cantado in SFL grammars and textbooks. The results suggest remarkable similarities and divergences between the two types of teaching materials, since the manuals are less varied in terms of labels and explanations of the values of the forms in -ria. The explanations of the uses of these verb forms are mainly based on non-prototypical uses, especially on modal and virtual semantic values.
