Revision:Conditional Mood

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The Conditional Mood

The conditional is often referred to as a tense, however it is technically a mood. This means that it can be used in several different tenses. At GCSE, however, you are only expected to use it in the present tense.

To form the conditional, you take the stem of the verb (remove the ending from the nous form of the verb in the present tense). Then add the imperfect ending of avoir in the imperfect tense.

Imperfect endings

The conditional signifies that the subject should or would do the action.

eg.

j'aiderais à mettre à jour le wiki (I would help to update the wiki)

Je devrais faire mes devoirs (I should do my homework)

Some irregular verbs in the conditional present

avoir :

j'aurais

tu aurais

il/elle/on aurait

nous aurions

vous auriez

ils auraient

aller :

j'irais

tu irais

il/elle/on irait

nous irions

vous iriez

ils iraient

Être :

je serais

tu serais

il/elle/on serait

nous serions

vous seriez

ils/elles seraient

devoir :

je devrais

tu devrais

il/elle/on devrait

nous devrions

vous devriez

ils/elles devraient

The Perfect Conditional (beyond GCSE syllabus)

The perfect conditional translates as 'would have...' so to form the perfect conditional, take the conditional form of the auxiliary verb and form the rest of the verb as usual.

eg.

J'aurais aidé le professeur (I would have helped the teacher).

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