Notes les avril Le conditionnel (The Conditional) À Paris, on parlerait français avec tout le monde. In Paris, we would speak French with everybody. Qu’est-ce que vous feriez à ma place? What would you do if you were me? Je voudrais un croissant et un café, s’il vous plaît. I’d like a croissant and a coffee, please.
The conditional (le conditionnel) expresses what someone would do or what would happen under certain circumstances. The conditional of regular verbs is formed by taking the infinitive of –er and –ir verbs and the infinitive minus the final –e of –re verbs. You then add the same endings that are used with the imparfait. parlerfinirvendre jeparleraisfiniraisvendrais tuparleraisfiniraisvendrais il/elle/onparleraitfiniraitvendrait nousparlerionsfinirionsvendrions vousparleriezfiniriezvendriez ils/ellesparleraientfiniraientvendraient
Note the conditional form of most spelling change –er verbs.
The following verbs have irregular stems:
The conditional forms of il y a (there is/are), il faut (it’s necessary), and il pleut (it rains, it’s raining) are, respectively, il y aurait, il faudrait, and il pleuvrait.
Use the conditional to make a polite request, soften a demand, or express what someone could or should do. The conditional of pouvoir expresses could.