Grammar: Conditional (present)
The Conditional tense expresses the idea that you WOULD do something, if a specific condition is met. So in English, it involves either the word “would” or its abbreviation “‘d” (apostrophe d).
If we take the English verb “to give,” its conditional would be “I would give” or “I’d give.” The conditional of the English verb “to take” is either “I would take” or “I’d take.” In the negative sense, these would be “I wouldn’t give” or “I’d not give” and “I wouldn’t take” or “I’d not take.”
These are all examples of the Present Conditional. There is also a Past Conditional, which means “would have (given, etc).” That will be explained in a separate post.
How to form the Conditional tense in French:
- Decide which person is doing the action (I, you, he/she, we, you, they) and select the appropriate pronoun (je, tu, il/elle, nous, vous, ils).
- Find the Future Simple stem of the verb in question (eg the future simple of “donner” is “donner-“).
- Add the relevant Imperfect Tense ending to the Future Simple stem (the Imperfect endings are “-ais,” “-ais,” “-ait,” “-ions,” “-iez,” “-aient.”
| Person | Future simple stem | Imperfect ending | Result | English | English shorter |
| je | donner- | ais | je donnerais | I would give | I’d give |
| tu | donner- | ais | tu donnerais | you would give | you’d give |
| il | donner- | ait | il donnerait | he would give | he’d give |
| nous | donner- | ions | nous donnerions | we would give | we’d give |
| vous | donner- | iez | vous donneriez | you would give | you’d give |
| ils | donner- | aient | ils donneraient | they would give | they’d give |
Conditional tense of irregular verbs
Verbs with an irregular future simple stem will use that stem to form the conditional. These are verbs like être (ser-), avoir (aur-), faire (fer-), aller (ir-), venir (viendr-), devoir (devr-), vouloir (voudr-), pouvoir (pourr-), savoir (saur-), voir (verr-), valoir (vaudr-), pleuvoir (pleuvr-), courir (courr-) and envoyer (enverr-). See below for the Conditional conjugation of the verb être (ser-).
| Person | Future simple stem | Imperfect ending | Result | English | English shorter |
| je | ser- | ais | je serais | I would be | I’d be |
| tu | ser- | ais | tu serais | you would be | you’d be |
| il | ser- | ait | il serait | he would be | he’d be |
| nous | ser- | ions | nous serions | we would be | we’d be |
| vous | ser- | iez | vous seriez | you would be | you’d be |
| ils | ser- | aient | ils seraient | they would be | they’d be |
