French Conditional Mood

Written by Qualified French Expert Aurélie Drouard HKH, Licence d'anglais LLCE

Last updated: 2022-10-10

The French conditional mood, le mode conditionnel, is used when talking about things that depend upon some condition.

In English, we express this with 'would' + verb.

For example,

Si j'étais riche, j'achèterais une voiture. - If I were rich, I would buy a car.

There are two conditional tenses in French:

1. Le Conditionnel Présent
2. Le Conditionnel Passé
    

Related lesson: Tense / Mood