This document is a French lesson about verb tenses. It covers the imperfect tense, used to describe past habitual actions, and the conditional tense, used to describe what would happen or what people would do in certain circumstances. It provides examples of forming the conditional tense by taking the future stem and adding imperfect endings. It also discusses using the conditional to make polite requests and in sentences with "si" to express what would happen if a condition that is not real were true.

1. Bonnes vacances!8
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LEÇON
B Le conditionnel: formation p. 465
A Révision: L’imparfait p. 464
C Le conditionnel de politesse p. 466
D Le conditionnel dans les phrases avec si p. 467

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LEÇON
Link to Image
A Révision: L’imparfait p. 464
The imperfect is a past tense that describes what people USED TO DO
on a regular basis.
Nous passions l’été à la mer. We used to spend the summer at the ocean.
J’allais tous les jours à la plage. Every day I used to go to the beach.
You may want to review the forms of the imperfect on page
339, Leçon 23.

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LEÇON
B
The CONDITIONAL is used to describe what people WOULD DO, or what
WOULD HAPPEN in certain circumstances. Note the use of the conditional in
the following sentences.
S’ils avaient de l’argent, … If they had money, …
• Isabelle voyagerait • Isabelle would travel
• mes cousins achèteraient une moto • my cousins would buy a
motorcycle
• mes parents iraient au Japon • my parents would go to Japan
Le conditionnel: formation p. 465
Continued...
In French, the conditional is a simple tense. It consists of one
word and it is formed as follows:
FUTURE STEM + IMPERFECT ENDINGS

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B Le conditionnel: formation p. 465
Continued...
Note the conditional forms of the regular verbs parler, finir, vendre, and
the irregular verb aller.
je parlerais
je ne parlerais pas
INFINITIVE
CONDITIONAL
NEGATIVE
finirais
FUTURE parlerai
parler IMPERFECT
ENDINGS
-ais
nous parlerions finirions -ions
vous parleriez finiriez -iez
il/elle/on parlerait finirait -ait
tu parlerais finirais -ais
ils/elles parleraient finiraient -aient
INTERROGATIVE est-ce que tu parlerais? parlerais-tu?
finirai
finir

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LEÇON
B Le conditionnel: formation p. 465
Note the conditional forms of the regular verbs parler, finir, vendre, and
the irregular verb aller.
je vendrais
INFINITIVE
CONDITIONAL
NEGATIVE
irais
FUTURE vendrai
vendre IMPERFECT
ENDINGS
-ais
nous vendrions irions -ions
vous vendriez iriez -iez
il/elle/on vendrait irait -ait
tu vendrais irais -ais
ils/elles vendraient iraient -aient
INTERROGATIVE
irai
aller

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LEÇON
B Le conditionnel: formation p. 465
Verbs that have an irregular future stem keep this same
irregular stem in the conditional. For example:
avoir: j’aurais être: je serais aller: j’irais
faire: je ferais voir: je verrais

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The conditional is sometimes used to make polite requests. Compare the
following sentences.
C Le conditionnel de politesse p. 466
Je veux te parler. I want to talk to you.
Je voudrais te parler. I would like to talk to you.
Peux-tu m’aider? Can you help me?
Pourrais-tu m’aider? Could you help me?
Tu dois étudier. You must study.
Tu devrais étudier. You should study.

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D Le conditionnel dans les phrases avec si p. 467
Note the use of the conditional in the following sentences.
Si j’avais de l’argent, … If I had money (but I don’t), …
j’achèterais une voiture. I would buy a car.
Si nous étions en vacances, … If we were on vacation (but we’re not), …
nous irions à la plage. we would go to the beach.
The CONDITIONAL is used to express what WOULD HAPPEN if a
certain condition contrary to reality were met. In such sentences, the
construction is:
The CONDITIONAL is never used in the si-clause.
si-clause: IMPERFECT result clause: CONDITIONAL
Si tu étais au lycée à Paris, tu parlerais français en classe.