Ch 28 · Lesson 8French · Chapter 28 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
The conditional perfect: j'aurais fait, je serais venu
The conditional of or + participle, with the 's auxiliary and agreement: the might-have-been ( ) and , .
The short version
: the 's auxiliary
.
Why?Hide
The borrows everything from the except the auxiliary's tense. A verb that takes there takes it here, and the participle agrees: becomes . English would have offers only one auxiliary, so is the classic slip.
After the
, .
Why?Hide
The conditional never goes in the half of an if sentence. , : -- after , in the result. ' ' is heard in every playground in France and it is still wrong, in speech and on the page. Put the would-have in the other half.
The is the tense of what did not happen: . - I would have liked to come (and I did not). It is the conditional of or plus the past participle, and it does five jobs.
| Job | Example | English |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Might-have-been | . | I would have liked to come. |
| 2. , type 3 | , . | If I had known, I would have come. |
| 3. News: reportedly | . | The minister has reportedly resigned. |
| 4. Politeness | . | I was hoping for a word with you. |
| 5. Future in past | . | He said he would have finished by noon. |
If you can build the present conditional and the passé composé, you can build this tense today. Only the uses are new.
How to form it
Take the and put its auxiliary into the conditional.
| Subject | avoir verb | être verb |
|---|---|---|
| | |
| | |
| / | | |
| | |
| | |
| / | | |
The glosses: I would have done, I would have come, and so on down. The auxiliary takes the conditional endings you already know: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient.
The auxiliary choice and the agreement rules are the 's, unchanged:
| Rule | Example | English |
|---|---|---|
| movement: | . | They would have left. |
| reflexive: | . | We would have got up early. |
| : agree | . | She would have stayed. |
| : object before | | the letter I would have written |
Job 1: the might-have-been
Something was possible, and it did not come off. No is needed: everybody can work out the condition.
.- I would have liked to come..- She would have stayed longer..- We could have won..- That would have been simpler.
This is the everyday use in speech. Keep it apart from the plain conditional, which looks at now or later:
| Tense | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| conditional | | I would come (now, or later) |
| cond. | | I would have come (the moment has gone) |
Job 2: the result of a type 3 si clause
The si clauses page pairs the tenses. The third pairing is the unreal past: plus the plus-que-parfait, then the .
, .- If I had known, I would have come., .- If we had left earlier, we would not have missed the train..- I would have come if I had known. (The halves swap; the tenses stay.)
Real French often drops the and lets a short phrase carry the condition:
| Condition | Example | English |
|---|---|---|
, . | Without you, I would not have succeeded. | |
, . | With a bit of luck, we would have won. | |
| à place | , . | In your place, I would have said nothing. |
Going further: Job 3: news reports and "reportedly" and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
Practice
Practise this lesson
9-question session
One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end.
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