When is conditional used in french

Is it just by context and sentence construction? You must log in to post a comment. Lawless French » Grammar Lessons. Le conditionnel In English, we use the modal "would" plus a verb to talk about actions that may or may not take place, usually depending on whether a certain condition is met. Si clauses The most common use of the French conditional is in the result then clause of conditional sentences aka si clauses , which describe what would happen if some condition were met.

Polite requests Vouloir to want can be used in the conditional to ask for something. Par exemple… Je voudrais vous accompagner. Remember that pronouns remain before the conjugated verb:. To form a question using inversion, reverse the order of the subject pronoun and the verb, and join them with a hyphen:. To negate an inverted question, put ne and the negative expression around the inverted form.

Remember that all object and adverbial pronouns must remain before the conjugated form of the verb:. Note the following about when and when not to use the conditional in French:.

The verbs 'pouvoir', 'vouloir', and 'devoir' are often found in the conditional to diminish the strength of a command. In most cases, the conditional is translated as meaning would in English. However, je pourrais means 'I could', je devrais means 'I should' and je voudrais means 'I would like'. Joe-Bob and Tammy are at the restaurant where Edouard works as a waiter. Edouard: Bonsoir Madame, Monsieur.

Edouard: Good evening, would you like to order drinks to start? Tammy: Oh oui! Pourrions- nous avoir un Ricard et un Perrier? Tammy: Oh yes, could we have one Ricard and one Perrier? Then I would like a green salad, please. Joe-Bob: Je veux un hamburger. Joe-Bob: I want a hamburger. In French, we use the conditional in the following cases:. To conjugate any French verb in the conditional, go to the verb conjugator.

Note the exceptions when conjugating the futur simple. We use it to look back on past situations and express alternative outcomes. In negative sentences , the past participle comes after the second part of the negation pas.

For reflexive verbs , we put the reflexive pronoun and the auxiliary verb between the two parts of the negation ne … pas.