Conditional Mood – Irregular Verbs
In this lesson we learn how to create conditional mood for irregular French verbs.
What are the irregular verbs in the conditional mood?
A handful of verbs have irregular stems for the conditional. These are the same as those used for the future tense.
For example, the conditional mood endings for avoir are added to the stem aur-. For être the stem to use is ser-. Again, just like the future tense, the same endings are added as per the regular verbs, it’s just the stem that needs to be noted.
Therefore, avoir is formed as follows:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| j’aurais | I would have |
| tu aurais | you would have |
| il aurait | he would have |
| elle aurait | she would have |
| nous aurions | we would have |
| vous auriez | you would have |
| ils auraient | they would have |
| elles auraient | they would have |
Être, meanwhile, looks like this:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| je serais | I would be |
| tu serais | you would be |
| il serait | he would be |
| elle serait | she would be |
| nous serions | we would be |
| vous seriez | you would be |
| ils seraient | they would be |
| elles seraient | they would be |
What are the irregular conditional mood stems in French?
These are the same as those used for the future tense. The main irregular stems to note are:
| French Verb | Conditional Stem | English |
|---|---|---|
| acquérir | acquerr- | to acquire |
| aller | ir- | to go |
| avoir | aur- | to have |
| courir | courr- | to run |
| devoir | devr- | to have to |
| envoyer | enverr- | to send |
| être | ser- | to be |
| faire | fer- | to do |
| falloir | faudr- | to need to |
| pleuvoir | pleuvr- | to rain |
| pouvoir | pourr- | to be able to |
| savoir | saur- | to know |
| tenir | tiendr- | to hold |
| valoir | vaudr- | to be worth |
| venir | viendr- | to come |
| voir | verr- | to see |
| vouloir | voudr- | to want |
Vouloir, for example, which is used to express phrases such as ‘I would like,’ is conjugated as follows: