conditionel

Le conditionel

his présentation of the

onditional

was prepared by

David Berger.

All comments, suggestions and

corrections are welcome

A
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F
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You can consider a verb to be made of two parts:

The body (the root) and the head (the endings).

In the case of the conditional, the body would be that of the

future and the head that of the imperfect past.

The root of future verbs

are:

For ER verbs, the infinitive i.e CHANTER

For IR verbs, also the infinitive i.e FINIR

For RE verbs, the infinitive without the final E i.e VENDR

To these roots (or bodies) you add the heads (or endings) which

are exactly those of the imperfect, for all verbs.

JE........AIS

TU........AIS

IL..........AIT

NOUS...IONS

VOUS...IEZ

ILS........AIENT

lso JE CHOISIRAIS, TU CHOISIRAIS etc.....

JE VENDRAIS, TU VENDRAIS ...etc

As you can see, the body of the verb remains unchanged

between the future and the conditional. This applies to all verbs,

including the irregular ones. Thus:

FUTUR

CONDITONEL

j'irai

j'aurai

Je courrai

je devrai

j'enverrai

Je serai

je ferai

il pleuvra

Je pourrai

Je recevrai

Je saurai

je tiendrai

je viendrai

Je verrai

je voudrai

Moreover, as you can see from the above examples, the only

difference between the JE forms of the Future and that of the

conditional is an S which does not get pronounced. Thus they

sound the same, and the context differentiates them, unless

there is a linking in which the s would be pronounced as a z at

the beginning of the following word (which would have to begin

with either a vowel or an h.

J’irai demain

J’irais s’il pleuvait

I would sing: JE CHANTERAIS

You would sing: TU CHANTERAIS

He would sing:

IL CHANTERAI

We would sing:

NOUS CHANTERIONS

You would sing:

VOUS CHANTERIEZ

They would sing: ILS CHANTERAIENT

I‘ll sing:       JE CHANTERAI
You‘ll sing: TU CHANTERAS
He‘ll sing:    IL CHANTERA
We‘ll sing:   NOUS CHANTERONS
You‘ll sing: VOUS CHANTEREZ
They‘ll sing: ILS CHANTERONT

I shall go
I shall have
I shall run
I shall have to
I shall send
I shall be
I shall do
it will rain
I shall be able
I shall receive
I shall know
I shall hold
I shall corne
I shall see
I shall want

j'irais
j'aurais
Je courrais
je devrais
j'enverrais
Je serais
je ferais
il pleuvrait
Je pourrais
Je recevrais
Je saurais
je tiendrais
je viendrais
Je verrais
je voudrais

I would go
I would have
I would run
I would have to
I would send
I would be
I would do
it would rain
I would be able
I would receive
I would know
I would hold
I would come
I would see
I would want

Uses of the conditional

The conditional in french is used in the same way
as in English and with the same flexibility that
some may consider mistakes.
For example in English, one says:
If I had a coin, I would toss it i
If you toss it, you will have luck.

In the first sentence, we have the past with the
conditional, and in the second, the present with the
future. This is grammatically correct.

In French:
Si j’avais une pièce, je la jetterais dans l’eau.
(imparfait with conditional)
Si tu la jettes, tu auras de la chance.
(present with future)
However, one could also say : If I tossed it, I will
have luck, putting the future with the past (instead
of the conditional).
Same in French:
Si tu la jetais, tu auras de la chance.

It is important to remember that the part of the
phrase that has « si » does not take the
conditional. It is the other part that does. It may
follow or precede the condition. Ex:
Si tu allais en taxi tu arriverais à l’heure.
Tu réussirais si tu essayais.

Also, remember that in english, « would » does not
always take the conditional. It could imply a past
repeated action (used to) and take the imparfait:
He would take a walk at sunset.
Il se promenait au coucher du soleil.
(see “the big bad would” in the imparfait section).

J’irai au cinéma demain
J’irais au cinéma s’il pleuvait.

Past Conditional.

The past conditional is a composite past where the first
part is either the verb avoir or être in the present
conditional followed by the past participle.
The same verbs that use "etre" instead of avoir in the
passé composé use "être" in the conditional past.

Present conditional of

avoir

J'aurais

Tu aurais

Il aurait

Nous aurions

Vous auriez

Elles auraient

EX:
J'aurais chanté                             I would have sung
Elle aurait pris                               She would have taken
Ils seraient allés                           They would have gone
Nous nous serions dépêchés We would have hurried

être
Je serais
Tu serais
Il serait
Nous serions
Vous seriez
Ils seraient

Uses of the past conditional
The past conditional is used to express that
something would have or have not happened in
the past if something had or had not been done.
It is usually accompanied by the plus-que-parfait,

The plus-que-parfait is formed by replacing the
present of avoir in the passé composé with the
imparfait. For example:
J'ai essayé: I tried
J'avais essayé: I had tried
Then:
Si j'avais su, j'aurais fui.
If I had known, I would have run away.
Si tu serais restée, nous aurions déjeuné
If you had stayed, we would have had lunch.
S'ils s'étaient parlés, ils auraient compris
If they had spoken, they would have
understood

Sometimes, you will find the
plus-que-parfait with the conditional
present. Ex:
Si elle n'avait pas agi de la sorte, elle n'en
serait pas là.
Had she not acted in this manner, she would
not be in this situation now.

Deceit you tigress
If you look you will find
his feet on the ground
and other men's hearts.

Let' s contrast it with the Future: