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The French conditional (le conditionnel) mood is very similar to the English conditional

mood. It describes events that are not guaranteed to occur, those that are often
dependent on certain conditions. While the French conditional mood has a full set of
conjugations, the English equivalent is simply the modal verb "would" plus the main
verb.

1. Le Conditionnel: If...then

The French conditional is mainly used in if...then constructs. It expresses the idea


that if this were to happen, then that would be the result. 

While French uses the word si in the "if" or condition clause, it does not use a term for
"then" in the result clause. The conditional verb itself is used in the result (then) clause,
while only four other tenses are permitted in the si clause: présent, passé composé,
imparfait,  and plus-que-parfait.

 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
 Il mangerait avec nous si nous l'invitions: He would eat with us if we invited him

2. Special Cases: Vouloir  and Aimer

The verb vouloir (to want) 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 (to like, love) 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

3. Conjugating le Conditionnel

Conjugating the conditional may be one of the simplest French conjugations you'll


encounter. There is only one set of endings for all verbs. Most of them — even many
that are irregular in the present tense — use their infinitives as the root. There are only
about two dozen stem-changing or irregular verbs that have irregular conditional stems
but take the same endings.
To show you how easy conditional conjugations are, let's take a look at how it applies to
different types of verbs. We'll use jouer (to play) as our regular -er example, finir (to
finish) as our irregular -ir example, and dire (to say) as one exception to the rules.

Subjec Endin Jouer  Finir  Dire 


t g
je -ais jouerais finirais dirais
tu -ais jouerais finirais dirais
il -ait jouerait finirait dirait
nous -irons jouerions finirions dirions
vous -iez joueriez finiriez diriez
ils -aient joueraientfiniraientdiraient

Notice how we had to drop the "e" in dire before adding the conditional endings. This is
the sort of change you will find in that handful of verbs that do not follow the standard
conditional conjugation pattern. Other than that, you can see how easy it is to form the
conditional from almost any verb, even the irregular ones.

4. The Verbs That Don't Follow the Rules

So which verbs are you going to have to pay attention to when it comes to the
conditional verb mood? Dire and other verbs that end in -ire are easy compared to some
of the others, a few barely resemble the infinitive form while others take on more subtle
changes. 

The following verbs are irregular in the conditional mood. Notice how the stems change
and that they do not use the infinitive form like the other verbs do. There are two rules
here:

1. The conditional stem always ends in "r." 


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

When conjugating these into the conditional, simply attach the endings noted above
according to the subject pronoun in your sentence.

Infinitive Conditional Similar Verbs


Verb Stem
acheter  achèter- achever, amener, emmener, lever, promener
acquérir  acquerr- conquérir, s'enquérir
appeler  appeller- épeler, rappeler, renouveler
aller  ir-  
avoir  aur-  
courir  courr- concourir, discourir, parcourir
devoir  devr-  
Infinitive Conditional Similar Verbs
Verb Stem
envoyer  enverr-  
essayer  essaier- balayer, effrayer, payer
essuyer  essuier- appuyer, ennuyer
être  ser-  
faire  fer-  
falloir  faudr-  
jeter  jetter- feuilleter, hoqueter, projeter, rejecter
nettoyer  nettoier employer, noyer, tutoyer, -ayer stem-changing verbs
pleuvoir  pleuvr-  
pouvoir  pourr-  
savoir  saur-  
tenir  tiendr- maintenir, obtenir, soutenir
valoir  vaudr-  
venir  viendr- devenir, parvenir, revenir
voir  verr- Revoir
vouloir  voudr-  

5. Conditionnel passé

The conditional passé corresponds to the English structure would have + past participle.
We use it to look back on past situations and express alternative outcomes. To conjugate
the  conditionnel passé we use the conditional form of avoir/être followed by the participe
passé of the verb.

Person -er verbs -ir  verbs -re verbs


1st person singular (I) j’aurais aimé j’aurais fini j’aurais vendu
2nd person singular (you) tu aurais aimé tu aurais fini tu aurais vendu
3rd person
il aurait aimé il aurait fini il aurait vendu
singular (he/she/it)
nous aurions aim nous aurions fin
1st person plural (we) nous aurions vendu
é i
2nd person plural (you) vous auriez aimé vous auriez fini vous auriez vendu
3rd person plural (they) ils auraient aimé ils auraient fini ils auraient vendu

In negative sentences, the past participle comes after the second part of the
negation (pas).

Example:
J’aurais rigolé. → Je n’aurais pas rigolé.
Je serais parti.→ Je ne serais pas parti. 

For reflexive verbs, we put the reflexive pronoun and the auxiliary verb between the
two parts of the negation (ne … pas).

Example:
Je ne me serais pas  trompé dans mon calcul.

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