grammar
Le conditionnel présent: Expressing what "would" happen.
When you want to sound exceptionally polite, make a gentle suggestion, or talk about a hypothetical situation, you use the present conditional (le conditionnel présent). It is the direct equivalent of saying "would" in English.
The Mashup Formula
Building the conditional is like a grammar equation. You take the base stem from the future tense and attach the endings from the imperfect tense.
(-ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient)
| je partirais | nous partirions |
| tu partirais | vous partiriez |
| il/elle/on partirait | ils/elles partiraient |
Irregular Stems
If a verb has an irregular stem in the simple future tense, it uses that exact same irregular stem for the conditional! The endings remain perfectly regular.
venir (to come) ➔ je viendrais, tu viendrais... (I would come, you would come...)
aller (to go) ➔ j'irais, tu irais... (I would go, you would go...)
pouvoir (to be able to) ➔ je pourrais, tu pourrais... (I could / I would be able to, you could...)
If you only memorize two conditional verbs, make them vouloir (to want) and aimer (to like). Using the conditional turns demanding statements into polite requests:
Au lieu de "Je veux un café" (I want a coffee), dites :
➔ « Je voudrais un café. » (I would like a coffee.)
Au lieu de "J'aime voyager" (I like to travel), pour un souhait dites :
➔ « J'aimerais voyager. » (I would like to travel.)