French/Grammar/Tenses/Present conditional

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Usage of the Conditional (Present)

The conditional tense is used when:

• a hypothetical situation is described. In which case the structure "Si + l'imparfait, le conditionnel" is used.

e.g. If I saw (or If I were to see) her, I would not recognize her. - Si je la voyais, je ne la reconnaîtrais pas.

• a polite request needs to be made:

e.g. I would like a small salad, please. - Je voudrais (or J'aimerais) une petit salade, s'il vous plaît.

• an event that had not happened was described:

e.g. He said Marie would come. - Il a dit que Marie viendrait.

Formation of the Conditional

Conditional Stems

• For (regular and irregular) -er or -ir verbs, the infinitive is the future stem.
• For (regular and irregular) -re verbs, the infinitive minus the final e is the future stem.
• Exception: Verbs that are stem-changing in the present are stem-changing in the conditional also.
• Exception: Certain irregular verbs have irregular conditional stems. (Not all irregular verbs have conditional stems).

Stem Changes

Verb	Change From	Change To
-ler verbs	ler	ller
-ter verbs	ter	tter
-yer verbs	yer	ier
verbs with an e in the penultimate syllable	e in penultimate syllable	è
verbs with é in the penultimate syllable	é in penultimate syllable	è

Irregular Stems

verb	future stem
aller	ir-
avoir	aur-
devoir	devr-
envoyer	enverr-
être	ser-
faire	fer-
pleuvoir	pleuvr-
pouvoir	pourr-
savoir	saur-
venir	viendr-
voir	verr
vouloir	voudr-

Conditional Endings

• To conjugate in the conditional, add the appropriate ending to the future stem.

Subject	Ending
je	-ais
tu	-ais
il	-ait
nous	-ions
vous	-iez
ils	-aient

Tenses and moods

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