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 petite 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 conditional stem.
• For (regular and irregular) -re verbs, the infinitive minus the final e is the conditional stem.
• Exception: verbs that are stem-changing in the present are stem-changing in the conditional also.
• Exception: certain irregular verbs (but not all) have irregular conditional stems.
• Note: in a word, the conditional stem is the same with the future one.

Stem changes

Verb	Change from	Change to
-ler verbs	ler	ller
ier verbs	ier	ier
-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	Example with parler
je	-ais	parlerais
tu	-ais	parlerais
il	-ait	parlerait
nous	-ions	parlerions
vous	-iez	parleriez
ils	-aient	parleraient

Tenses and moods

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