An overview of the French conditional tenses, explaining their use for expressing hypothetical situations, politeness, and future-in-the-past.
The French conditional tense is used to express actions that would happen under certain conditions, make polite requests, or describe future events from a past viewpoint. It’s formed by adding specific endings to the verb’s infinitive (or irregular stem) and shares the same endings as the imperfect tense (-ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient). For example, “parler” becomes “je parlerais” (I would speak). French also has a conditional past tense to describe outcomes that would have occurred under different circumstances, using the auxiliary verb (être or avoir) in the conditional plus the past participle (e.g., “j’aurais parlé” – I would have spoken). Understanding the conditional is key to mastering nuanced communication and expressing possibilities in French.
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Table of Contents
- Present Conditional
Present Conditional in French grammar, explaining how to form and use the conditional mood for expressing wishes, making polite requests, and hypothesizing.
- Past Conditional
French past conditional overview detailing formation with auxiliary verbs and past participle, usage for hypothetical past actions, regrets, and reported speech.
Last updated: Thu Jun 12, 2025
