l'imparfait vs conditionel passé

Sebastian S.B2Kwiziq community member

l'imparfait vs conditionel passé

Is there a difference in meaning between "il devait faire qqc" and "il aurait dû faire qqc"?  

Asked 3 months ago
Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

Just to add to Maarten's answer:

Here is the difference between the two sentence:

Il devait faire qqc. -- He was supposed to do something.
Il aurait dû faire qqc. -- He should have done something.

Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Sebastian,

 a link to recent response from Céline. 

Imparfait expresses the sense of a reproach that you were supposed to have done something, but not necessarily with any sense that something negative resulted because you didn’t.

The conditional passé conveys a stronger negative sense - because you didn’t do what you should have, look at what happened !

 https://french.kwiziq.com/questions/view/the-difference-between-devoir-in-le-conditionnel-passe-and-l-imparfait

l'imparfait vs conditionel passé

Is there a difference in meaning between "il devait faire qqc" and "il aurait dû faire qqc"?  

Sign in to submit your answer

Don't have an account yet? Join today

Ask a question

Find your French level for FREE

Test your French to the CEFR standard

Find your French level
Let me take a look at that...