Le conditionnel passé
The French conditional perfect (a.k.a. the past conditional) is used for expressing actions that should, could or would have happened. It is often used for expressing regrets. It is a compound tense that’s formed with the auxiliary verbs avoir or être conjugated in the present conditional and the past participle. For example, “J’aurais mangé” (I would have eaten) and “Je serais allé” (I would have gone).
French Conditional Perfect
Example sentences
Uses of the past conditional consist of expressing regret for an action that never occurred and hypothetical situations of events that did or didn’t take place.
Expressing regret, talking about things that never happened
J’aurais aimé y aller. I would have loved to go.
J’aurais su la verité. I should have known the truth.
Tu aurais dû commander la pizza. You should have ordered the pizza.
Si clause with the past conditional
The past conditional is used to express hypothetical past situations. The grammatical structure is:
If A had (not) happened (pluperfect), then B would have (not) happened (conditional perfect).
Si j’avais su, je ne serais pas y allé. If I had known, I wouldn’t have gone.
J’aurais acheté la voiture si j’avais eu assez d’argent. I would have have bought the car if I’d had enough money.
Journalistic usage
The past conditional is also commonly used in journalism to express past events which allegedly or reportedly occurred.
Le premier ministre se serait rendu aux États-Unis. The prime minister reportedly made it to the United States.
Conditional perfect conjugation
The conditional perfect is a compound tense. It is comprised of the auxiliary verb (avoir or être) conjugated in the conditional and the past participle.
| avoir verb | être verb | reflexive verb | |
| parler – to speak | aller – to go | se souvenir – to remember | |
| je/j’ | aurais parlé | serais allé(e) | me serais souvenu(e) |
| tu | aurais parlé | serais allé(e) | te serais souvenu(e) |
| il/elle | aurait parlé | serait allé(e) | se serait souvenu(e) |
| nous | aurions parlé | serions allé(e)s | nous serions souvenu(e)s |
| vous | auriez parlé | seriez allé(e)(s) | vous seriez souvenu(e)(s) |
| ils/elles | auraient parlé | seraient allé(e)s | se seraient souvenu(e)s |
Related lessons
- Conditional mood
- Pluperfect
- Imperfect
- Aurais dû – should have (Word of the Day lesson)
- Tips for learning verb conjugations
- Verb tenses overview
