Conditionnel passé

B2

Past Conditional

The conditionnel passé is used to express hypothetical actions or regrets in the past, often in "if" clauses or to describe what would have happened under different circumstances. It is formed with the conditional present of the auxiliary verb (avoir or être) plus the past participle of the main verb.

• J’aurais aimé changer le monde.
  • I would have liked to change the world.
• Si j’avais su, j’aurais agi différemment.
  • If I had known, I would have acted differently.
• Nous serions arrivés plus tôt si le train n’avait pas été en retard.
  • We would have arrived earlier if the train hadn’t been late.

The conditionnel passé is commonly used in spoken and written French for expressing regrets (J’aurais dû... I should have...), hypotheses about the past, or reported future actions from a past perspective. For verbs that use être in the passé composé (e.g., motion verbs like aller, venir), the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject. Agreement rules follow those of the passé composé.

Formation

Auxiliary in Conditionnel Présent + Past Participle

Conditionnel Présent of Auxiliary

For most verbs: avoir → j’aurais, tu aurais, il/elle aurait, nous aurions, vous auriez, ils/elles auraient For motion/reflexive verbs: être → je serais, tu serais, il/elle serait, nous serions, vous seriez, ils/elles seraient

• Past Participle: Same as in passé composé (e.g., parler → parlé, finir → fini, prendre → pris).
• Negation: Place ne...pas around the auxiliary (e.g., Je n’aurais pas parlé I wouldn’t have spoken).
• Agreement: With avoir, agrees with direct object if preceding; with être, always agrees with subject.

Conjugation Table (with avoir)

Conjugation Table (with être)

Notes

Often paired with the plus-que-parfait for conditional sentences

• Si j’avais eu le temps, j’aurais fini le rapport.
  • If I had had time, I would have finished the report.

For more on auxiliaries, see Passé composé with avoir and Passé composé with être.