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French Tenses: Conditional (MOOD) Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

French Conditional Tense & Mood

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

Condit­ional Tense

Le condit­ionnel (the condit­ional) can be used in French as a tense and as a mood. As a tense, le condit­ionnel expresses the future seen from a past point of view. As a mood, the condit­ional allows us to talk about a hypoth­etical or imagined reality that can only occur under certain circum­sta­nces.
It’s considered a mood NOT a tense, which describes how an action takes place (rather than when).

When to use le condit­ionnel in French: Le condit­ionnel is often translated with would or could in English. In French, we use the condit­ional in the following cases:
to express a wish, a possib­ility, or a hypothesis in the present or the future (condi­tionnel présent) or in the past (condi­tionnel passé)
as a tense to talk about the future from a past point of view
in if-clauses (see the section on condit­ional clauses
to make polite requests

The condit­ional is called “le condit­ionnel” and its endings are -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient (the imperfect endings).

conjugate the condit­ional

Present condit­ional

To conjugate the present condit­ional (le présent du condit­ion­nel), add the condit­ional ending to the infini­tive, just as you would when forming the future tense. For regular -re verbs add the endings to the infinitive minus the final -e.

The stem used to form the condit­ional is the same as the stem of the future (usually the infini­tive). The condit­ional endings are -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient (These are also the imperfect endings).
We form the condit­ionnel présent by adding the imparfait endings to the stem of the futur simple form of the verb.

When to use condit­ional

SI CLAUSES:
The first si clause doesn’t actually use the condit­ional mood at all:
Si + Present, Future Simple
Si j’ai le temps, je t’appe­llerai. (If I have time, I’ll call you.)
This si clause expresses certain actions taken in the future should an event occur in the present. One implies that the present action is nearly certain, thus the use of the future instead of the condit­ional.

The second si clause in French is as follows:
Si + Imperfect, Condit­ional
Si j’avais le temps, je t’appe­lle­rais. (If I had time, I would call you.)
This si clause expresses actions that are based entirely on a condition. It is implied that the action is possible but not certain.

The third si clause in French is as follows:
Si + Pluper­fect, Past Condit­ional
Si j’avais eu le temps, je t’aurais appelé. (If I’d had time, I would’ve called you.)
This si clause expresses a certain amount of regret. It’s the idea that “should have” or “could have” expresses in English. As you can see from the above sentence, the past condit­ional is quite easy to form once you know the condit­ional and the passé composé.
Like the plus perfect or plus-q­ue-­par­fait, the past condit­ional is a composed tense made up of the condit­ional of the auxiliary verb (être or avoir, depending on the lexical verb) and the past participle of the lexical verb.

Aside from the si clauses, which are the principal use of the condit­ional in French, you can also use the condit­ional to express polite­ness, partic­ularly with verbs expressing desire, like vouloir or aimer.
Je veux un sandwich. (I want a sandwich.)
Je voudrais un sandwich. (I would like a sandwich.)
J’aime le cinéma. (I like the movie theater.)
J’aimerais venir au cinéma avec vous. (I would like to come to the cinema with you.)
Peux-tu me donner un stylo ? (Can you give me a pen?)
Pourra­is-tu me donner un stylo ? (Could you give me a pen?)

You can also use the condit­ional to give advice:
Tu dois faire tes devoirs tout de suite. (You must do your homework right now.)
Tu devrais faire tes devoirs tout de suite. (You should do your homework right now.)

When to NOT use the condit­ional

Don’t use the condit­ional with all verbs to “be polite”

The politeness aspect of the condit­ional should really only be used with verbs expressing desire, like vouloir, aimer, désirer or with verbs that incite action from the other person­—like pouvoir or devoir. Other than these verbs, err on the side of caution when consid­ering the condit­ional to express polite­ness.

Don’t use the condit­ional immedi­ately after si
 

Irregulars in the Condit­ional

There are several irregular roots in the future simple; these irregular roots are the same in the condit­ional. Here are just a few:
Aller: ir-
Avoir: aur–
Devoir: devr-
Etre: ser-
Faire: fer-
Falloir: faudr-
Pleuvoir: pleuvr-
Pouvoir: pourr-
Savoir: saur-
Tener: tiendr-
Venir: viendr-
Voir: verr-
Vouloir: voudr-


courir: courr-
envoyer: enverr-
mourir: mourr-
obtenirr: obtiendr-
recevoir: recevr-


To these roots, add the same endings as with the imperfect:
Je -ais
Tu -ais
Il/Elle/On -ait
Nous -ions
Vous -iez
Ils/Elles –aient

Conjug­ation: Past Condit­ional

The French past condit­ional, also called the condit­ional perfect, is a compound tense formed with the auxiliary verbs avoir or être in the present condit­ional and the past partic­iple.

Uses of the condit­ionnel passé consist of expressing regret for an action that never occurred and hypoth­etical situations of events that did or didn’t take place. J’aurais dû + infinitive indicates “I should have”.
The past condit­ional also has a journa­listic use for events that allegedly or reportedly occurred.

The past condit­ional is also used to express hypoth­etical past situat­ions. The gramma­tical structure is: If A had (not) happened (plus-­que­-pa­rfait), then B would have (not) happened (past condit­ional).

Ex's: “J’aurais mangé” (I would have eaten) and “Je serais allé” (I would have gone).

J'aurais + past participle
Tu aurais +pp
il aurait +pp
nous aurions +pp
vous auriez +pp
ils auraient +pp
//
je serais +pp
tu serais +pp
il serait +pp
nous serions +pp
vous seriez +pp
ils seraient +pp