Conditionnel présent

Le conditionnel (the conditional) can be used in French as a tense and as a mood. As a tense, le conditionnel expresses the future seen from a past point of view. As a mood, the conditional allows us to talk about a hypothetical or imagined reality that can only occur under certain circumstances.

When to use le conditionnel in French

Le conditionnel is often translated with would or could in English. In French, we use the conditional in the following cases:

• to express a wish, a possibility, or a hypothesis in the present or the future (conditionnel présent) or in the past (conditionnel passé)

  ☞  Antoine aimerait aller en France.

• in if-clauses (see the section on conditional clauses

  ☞  Si j’etais riche, je vivrais en France

• to make polite requests

  ☞  Pardon madame, pourriez-vous m’indiquer la gare, s’il vous plaît ?