The French Conditional Tense: Endings, Irregulars, and Examples

When to use the conditional

Before the endings, get clear on what the conditional is for, because that is what tells you when to reach for it. It is the "would" tense. Four uses cover almost everything you will meet:

• Polite requests and wishes. Je voudrais un cafe, I would like a coffee, is softer and more polite than the blunt je veux, I want. Pourriez-vous m'aider? means Could you help me? This is the use you will lean on every single day.
• Hypothetical results. After a si (if) clause with the imperfect, the conditional carries the result: Si j'avais de l'argent, je voyagerais, If I had money, I would travel.
• The future in the past. When you report what someone said about the future, the future shifts to the conditional: Il a dit qu'il viendrait, He said he would come.
• Unconfirmed reports. News writing uses it for claims that are not yet verified: Le president serait a Paris, The president is reportedly in Paris.

How to form the conditional

The conditional is built from two pieces you may already know, which is why it is so quick to learn.

The stem is the same one the simple future uses. For almost every verb that stem is just the infinitive. For -re verbs, drop the final -e first: vendre becomes vendr-. So parler keeps parler-, finir keeps finir-, and vendre becomes vendr-.

The endings are the same six endings as the imperfect: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. That overlap is the single most useful thing to remember here. Conditional stem equals future stem, conditional endings equal imperfect endings.

The endings never change. Only the stem does.

All three verb groups

Here are the three regular families side by side so you can see that the endings stay identical while only the stem shifts. Note the double r you can hear in verbs whose stem already ends in r, like finir.

The irregular stems worth knowing

A handful of high-frequency verbs use a special stem instead of the infinitive. The comforting part: these are the exact same stems as the future, so learning them here means you also know the future. The endings stay perfectly regular. Learn the top rows first, since they carry most everyday sentences.

Two of these, falloir and pleuvoir, only exist in the il form: il faudrait means it would be necessary, and il pleuvrait means it would rain. You will use il faudrait constantly to say what someone should do, so it is worth banking early.

Examples you can say out loud

Si clauses: the pattern to memorize

Hypothetical sentences are where the conditional shines, and they follow one fixed pattern. When si means "if" and describes an unreal or unlikely situation, the two halves split their work like this:

So the imperfect sets up the "if", and the conditional delivers the "would". A few models to copy:

• Si j'avais le temps, je lirais plus. If I had the time, I would read more.
• Si tu venais, on serait content. If you came, we would be happy.
• Si elle etait la, elle t'aiderait. If she were here, she would help you.

The order can flip without changing anything: Je lirais plus si j'avais le temps means exactly the same thing.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Never put the conditional after si. Say si j'etais riche, not si je serais riche. The conditional belongs in the other half of the sentence, never in the if clause itself. This is the single most common error.
• Do not confuse it with the future. Je parlerais (with -ais) is "I would speak"; je parlerai (with -ai) is "I will speak". They sound nearly identical, so watch the ending when you write.
• Keep the stem, change only the ending. With irregular verbs the temptation is to attach endings to the infinitive. It is je ferais, not je faireais, and je serais, not je etrais.

Want the wider verb picture these forms sit inside? Our guide to verb conjugation in French shows how the stems and endings work across every tense, and the present tense in French is the natural next step if you are still building your base.