What is the conditional in French?
Le conditionnel
Le conditionnel (the conditional) can be used in French as a tense and as a mood. As a tense, le conditionnel expresses the future seen from a past point of view. As a mood, the conditional allows us to talk about a hypothetical or imagined reality that can only occur under certain circumstances.
What is the conditional in French examples?
The conditional is used to refer to hypothetical events. It occurs in polite requests and most frequently with if clauses. In French, it is called le conditionnel and is most often translated by would in English….
| regarder ‘to look at’ | |
|---|---|
| future | conditional |
| ils / elles regarderont | ils / elles regarderaient |
Why do the French use the conditional?
Why Use the French Conditional Mood The conditional is used in French to express events that are not guaranteed to occur—events that depend on certain conditions to come true. This is why the mood is called the conditional.
Is there a conditional tense in French?
The present French conditional is used to express COULD – SHOULD – WOULD . Just like in English, using the conditional tense means that something is only going to happen if a certain condition is met. Si j’étais en France, J’APPRENDRAIS le français. If I were in France, I would learn French.
What is the conditional passé in French?
The conditionnel passé (past conditional) is used to express what would have taken place in the past had some other action, event, or situation occurred. The conditionnel passé is formed by using the conditional of the helping verb (avoir or être) + the past participle of the action being performed.
What is the conditional used for?
Frequently, the conditional is used to express probability, possibility, wonder or conjecture, and is usually translated as would, could, must have or probably.
How do you use the conditional tense?
Conditional tenses are used to speculate about what could happen, what might have happened, and what we wish would happen. In English, most sentences using the conditional contain the word if. Many conditional forms in English are used in sentences that include verbs in one of the past tenses.
How many conditional tenses are there in French?
two tenses
Why do I need to use the French conditional tense? The conditional is actually a mood, like the indicative and subjunctive moods. Within the conditional mood there are two tenses: the present and the past.
What is the conditional passe in French?
What is the conditional past?
The Past Conditional. The past conditional describes a past situation that never happened, or it did happen and the person speaking is describing the possibility of something not happening in the past. This is also called the past unreal or the past contrary-to-fact.
What is past Real conditional?
The Past Real Conditional describes what you used to do in particular real-life situations. It suggests that your habits have changed and you do not usually do these things today. If I went out with my friends, I usually spent the whole night out. I can’t do that anymore.
What is the conditional in French grammar?
As a tense, le conditionnel expresses the future seen from a past point of view. As a mood, the conditional allows us to talk about a hypothetical or imagined reality that can only occur under certain circumstances.
What is the French conditional mood?
The French conditional (le conditionnel) mood is very similar to the English conditional mood. It describes events that are not guaranteed to occur, those that are often dependent on certain conditions.
What is le conditionnel?
What is le conditionnel? Le conditionnel (the conditional) can be used in French as a tense and as a mood. As a tense, le conditionnel expresses the future seen from a past point of view. As a mood, the conditional allows us to talk about a hypothetical or imagined reality that can only occur under certain circumstances.
Why should you use the conditional?
Before getting into how to use the conditional, it’s important to know why to use the conditional: What does it mean, and why and when should you be using it? The conditional is used in French to express events that are not guaranteed to occur—events that depend on certain conditions to come true. This is why the mood is called the conditional.