The conditional present: irregular forms

Conditionnel présent: what it means (and when you use it)

Conditionnel présent often matches English “would + verb”.

• Politeness / softening: making requests less direct.
• Imaginary / hypothetical: situations that are not real now.
• Advice: “In your place, I would…”

It’s not the future. It’s “would”, not “will”.

The key pattern: irregular stem + regular conditional endings

These verbs are irregular in the stem, but they use the same endings as regular -er/-ir/-re verbs in the conditional.

The four irregular stems you must recognize

Shortcut to remember: these stems are the same as the simple future stems (e.g., je serai / je serais).

Spelling traps: what to pay attention to

• Faire: it’s fer- (not fair-) → tu ferais.
• Aller: it’s ir- (very short!) → vous iriez.
• -ais / -ait / -aient are often pronounced similarly. Choose by subject, not by sound.
• j’aurais / j’irais: remember the apostrophe with je before a vowel.

Polite requests: the conditional in real life

In conversation, the conditional is a professional way to sound less direct.

• Vous auriez une minute ? (Would you have a minute?)
• Je voudrais un rendez-vous. (I would like an appointment.)
• Vous seriez disponible demain ? (Would you be available tomorrow?)
• Je ferais une copie, s’il y a une imprimante. (I would make a copy, if there’s a printer.)

Tip: In questions, French often keeps normal word order and uses intonation: Vous auriez… ?

Hypotheses with “si”: how to combine tenses correctly

A very common structure is:

• Si + imparfait → conditionnel présent

Avoid: Si j’aurais… (French does not use conditional after si here.)

Self-check: can you build the form in 10 seconds?

1. Choose the verb: être / avoir / faire / aller.
2. Pick the stem: ser- / aur- / fer- / ir-.
3. Add the correct ending: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient.
4. Quick check:
   • nous always ends in -ions (nous serions).
   • vous always ends in -iez (vous auriez).
   • ils/elles always ends in -aient (ils iraient).