French Grammar Explained /
Conditional I
What would you do if you were rich?
I would buy a house in the south of France!
Excellente idée, but you would need to speak French first.
I could hire a personal interpreter...
In any case, I think we should study le conditionnel !
Je voudrais un café.
I would like a coffee.
Here the verb vouloir is used in the conditional to express a wish or a desire.
Voudrais-tu une part de gâteau ?
Would you like a piece of cake?
And when it is formulated into a question, it conveys a polite request.
Watch out, vouloir is an irregular verb:
vouloir → je voudrais
So far so good!
Génial ! Let's keep moving, continuons :
The conjugation of le conditionel présent is fairly easy. You need:
- The infinitive of the verb.
- The conjugation of l'imparfait.
j' + acheter + ais | → | j'achèterais |
tu + acheter + ais | → | tu achèterais |
il/elle/on + acheter + ait | → | il/elle/on achèterait |
nous + acheter + ions | → | nous achèterions |
vous + acheter + iez | → | vous achèteriez |
ils/elles + acheter + aient | → | ils/elles achèteraient |
Note that the verb acheter takes an accent grave on the first e when conjugated in the conditionel or futur simple !
The conditional can also suggest a hypothetical situation:
Si j'étais riche j'achèterais une maison à Paris.
If I were rich, I would buy a house in Paris.
Mais on en reparlera plus tard - more about that later.
Phew! This is a lot to take in...
You'll get the hang of it with practice!