The Use of the Past Conditional

There are four main verb moods (modes de temps) in French: the indicative, the subjunctive, the conditional and the imperative. In this chapter, we will study the conditional. There are two tenses that use the conditional mood: the present conditional and the past conditional.

In this chapter, we will study the past conditional, its form and its use and in this part, we will discuss the use of the past conditional. But before we start, we will remind you of the form of the past conditional:

The past conditional is formed with the conditional of the verb avoir or être (depending on the verb used ) and the past participle of the verb.

The past conditional is used in the following situations:

I. When the condition didn’t happen in the past

The condition failed to happen in the past and it would be impossible to come back to that situation because it already happened.