French Conditional Mood
The conditional is, in my opinion, one of the simplest French conjugations. There is only one set of endings for all verbs, and most of them - even many which are irregular in the present tense - use their infinitives as the root. There are only about two dozen stem-changing or irregular verbs which have irregular conditional stems but take the same endings:*
acheter > achèter- similar verbs: achever, amener, emmener, lever, promener
acquérir > acquerr- similar verbs: conquérir, s'enquérir
appeler > appeller- similar verbs: épeler, rappeler, renouveler
aller > ir-
avoir > aur-
courir > courr- similar verbs: concourir, discourir, parcourir, more
devoir > devr-
envoyer > enverr-
essayer > essaier- similar verbs: balayer, effrayer, payer
essuyer > essuier- similar verbs: appuyer, ennuyer
être > ser-
faire > fer-
falloir > faudr-
jeter > jetter- similar verbs: feuilleter, hoqueter, projeter, rejeter
nettoyer > nettoier- similar verbs: employer, noyer, tutoyer, more
pleuvoir > pleuvr-
pouvoir > pourr-
savoir > saur-
tenir > tiendr- similar verbs: maintenir, obtenir, soutenir, more
valoir > vaudr-
venir > viendr- similar verbs: devenir, parvenir, revenir, more
voir > verr- similar verb: revoir
vouloir > voudr-
*Notes:
1.
The conditional stem always ends in R.
2. The exact same verbs are irregular in the future and use the same stems.
Test on the French conditional mood
acheter > achèter- similar verbs: achever, amener, emmener, lever, promener
acquérir > acquerr- similar verbs: conquérir, s'enquérir
appeler > appeller- similar verbs: épeler, rappeler, renouveler
aller > ir-
avoir > aur-
courir > courr- similar verbs: concourir, discourir, parcourir, more
devoir > devr-
envoyer > enverr-
essayer > essaier- similar verbs: balayer, effrayer, payer
essuyer > essuier- similar verbs: appuyer, ennuyer
être > ser-
faire > fer-
falloir > faudr-
jeter > jetter- similar verbs: feuilleter, hoqueter, projeter, rejeter
nettoyer > nettoier- similar verbs: employer, noyer, tutoyer, more
pleuvoir > pleuvr-
pouvoir > pourr-
savoir > saur-
tenir > tiendr- similar verbs: maintenir, obtenir, soutenir, more
valoir > vaudr-
venir > viendr- similar verbs: devenir, parvenir, revenir, more
voir > verr- similar verb: revoir
vouloir > voudr-
*Notes:
1.
The conditional stem always ends in R.
2. The exact same verbs are irregular in the future and use the same stems.
Test on the French conditional mood
French conditional conjugations | |||||
To conjugate an -ER or -IR verb in the conditional, add the appropriate endings to the infinitive. For -RE verbs, remove the final -e and then add the conditional endings. For irregular verbs, add the endings to the irregular conditional stem. For example, here are the conditional conjugations for the regular verbs parler (to speak), finir (to finish), and vendre (to sell) and the irregular verb aller (to go): | |||||
Pronoun | Conditional ending | parler > parler- | finir > finir- | vendre > vendr- | aller > ir- |
je | -ais | parlerais | finirais | vendrais | irais |
tu | -ais | parlerais | finirais | vendrais | irais |
il | -ait | parlerait | finirait | vendrait | irait |
nous | -ions | parlerions | finirions | vendrions | irions |
vous | -iez | parleriez | finiriez | vendriez | iriez |
ils | -aient | parleraient | finiraient | vendraient | iraient |
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