French Tenses.

The French conditional mood is very similar to the English conditional mood. It describes events that are not guaranteed to occur; often they are dependent on certain conditions. While the French conditional mood has a full set of conjugations, the English equivalent is just the modal verb "would" + main verb.

 

The French conditional is mainly used in if ... then, to express what would happen if a condition were met (SIC = Si + Imperfect + Conditional)

 

   Il mangerait s'il avait faim.

   He would eat if he were hungry.

 

   Si nous étudiions, nous serions plus intelligents.

   If we studied, (then) we would be smarter.

 

*Note that the conditional is in the result (then) part of the clause, not the clause that follows si (if)*

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The verb vouloir is used in the conditional to express a polite request:

 

   Je voudrais une pomme.

   I would like an apple.

 

   Je voudrais y aller avec vous.

   I would like to go with you.

 

However, you can't say "si vous voudriez" to mean "if you would like," because the French conditional can never be used after si.

 

The verb aimer is used to express a polite desire, sometimes one that cannot be fulfilled:

 

   J'aimerais bien le voir !

   I would really like to see it!

 

   J'aimerais y aller, mais je dois travailler.

   I would like to go, but I have to work.

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Conjugation:

The conditional has only one set of endings for all verbs, and most of them - even many which are irregular in the present tense - use their infinitives as the root.

 

• The conditional stem always ends in R.

• The exact same verbs are irregular in the future and use the same stems.

 

French conditional conjugations

To conjugate an -ER or -IR verb in the conditional, add the appropriate endings to the infinitive. For -RE verbs, remove the final -e and then add the conditional endings. For irregular verbs, add the endings to the irregular conditional stem. For example, here are the conditional conjugations for the regular verbs parler (to speak), finir (to finish), and vendre (to sell) and the irregular verb aller (to go):