Construction of conditional past

Conditional past

The peculiarity of the conditional is to admit two tenses of the past. As we will see, the first form is by far the most used while the second is mainly used in literature.

Conditional past first form

The conditional past first form is formed by taking the appropriate auxiliary at conditional present to which one adds the past participle correctly granted. This is the most commonly used form of conditional.

	1^st group	2^nd group	3^rd group
	raconter	finir	partir
J'/Je	aurais raconté	aurais fini	serais parti(e)
Tu	aurais raconté	aurais fini	serais parti(e)
Il	aurait raconté	aurait fini	serait parti(e)
Nous	aurions raconté	aurions fini	serions parti(e)s
Vous	auriez raconté	auriez fini	seriez parti(e)s
Ils	auraient raconté	auraient fini	seraient parti(e)s

When the verb of the subordinate introduced by "si" is in the pluperfect, the verb of the principal is on conditional past.

Si tu avais su, tu ne serais pas venu.
Si tu en avais eu l'occasion, tu serais parti

Conditional past second form

The past conditional second form is formed by taking the proper auxiliary to the imperfect of the subjunctive to which one adds past participle properly granted. Another way of remembering it is to say that it is identical to the subjunctive pluperfect without the conjunction of subordination "que". This form is more used in writing. This is a very strong form of language.

	1^st group	2^nd group	3^rd group
	raconter	finir	partir
J'/Je	eusse raconté	eusse fini	fusse parti(e)
Tu	eusses raconté	eusses fini	fusses parti(e)
Il	eût raconté	eût fini	fût parti(e)
Nous	eussions raconté	eussions fini	fussions parti(e)s
Vous	eussiez raconté	eussiez fini	fussiez parti(e)s
Ils	eussent raconté	eussent fini	fussent parti(e)s

Be careful to put the accent circumflex on the "eût" and the "fût" otherwise it is the past perfect of the indicative.

S'il avait su, il eût pris ses lunettes de soleil.

The conditional past first form is by far the most used. It is formed by taking the auxiliary "avoir" or "être" to the present conditional to which one adds the past participle paying attention to the ending.