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Which to use? the conditional or the imperfect of pouvoir.

Karen P.C1Kwiziq community member

Which to use? the conditional or the imperfect of pouvoir.

Hello

So on the writing challenge test,( If I could start all over...).  I translated the last sentence "I could even get a dog." using "pouvais" meaning "able to" but the correct translation was using "pourrais" the conditional form. Please clarify!,Thank you, Karen 

Asked 4 years ago
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Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

Hi Karen, I don't know the context of the sentence, but the English word "could" has two meanings: either the imperfect tense or the conditional mood of "can". With this in mind, I suspect that the sentence under question may also be phrased as: "I might even get a dog," which would be the conditional. Only if it was intended to mean "I was even able to get a dog" would you use the imperfect.

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CélineNative French expert teacher in Kwiziq

Bonjour Karen, 

Chris has given you a very good explanation here. Could you add a link to the question it relates to please?

Bonne journée!

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Karen P. asked:View original

Which to use? the conditional or the imperfect of pouvoir.

Hello

So on the writing challenge test,( If I could start all over...).  I translated the last sentence "I could even get a dog." using "pouvais" meaning "able to" but the correct translation was using "pourrais" the conditional form. Please clarify!,Thank you, Karen 

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