French conjugation in present conditional


The present conditional or présent du conditionnel in french, is a simple tense. This tense is not formed with an auxiliary.
The conditional endings correspond to those of the imperfect indicative. They too are always regular: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient pronounced /ɛ, ɛ, ɛ, jɔ̃, je, ɛ/.

The conditional stem is always the same as the future stem: Je finirais, tu parlerais, elle sortirait, nous travaillerions, vous rougiriez, ils partiraient. Consequently, if the future stem is irregular, so will the conditional be, and vice versa. Moreover, if the future does not exist (defective verbs) neither will the conditional.

Sometimes the past imperfect subjunctive is used to replace the present conditional. This form is called the present conditional second form (Conditionnel présent deuxième forme). In contrast the regular conditional is then called present conditional first form (Conditionnel présent première forme). This has become very unusual, only in sentences starting with Même si and the expression fût-ce is still used.


Present conditional endings

The present conditional endings correspond to those of the imperfect indicative. They too are always regular: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient pronounced /ɛ, ɛ, ɛ, jɔ̃, je, ɛ/.
Here are the complete endings in present conditional for the three groups :

   
1st group
je -erais
tu -erais
il / elle -erait
nous -erions
vous -eriez
ils / elles -eraient
   
2nd group
je -irais
tu -irais
il / elle -irait
nous -irions
vous -iriez
ils / elles -iraient
   
3rd group
je -rais
tu -rais
il / elle -rait
nous -rions
vous -riez
ils / elles -raient