futur or conditionnel : what's the difference

06 oct. 2017 12:39 - language-swap

Niveau débutant

Choosing between the future tense and the present conditional can be pretty hard for a non-native French speaker regarding their close conjugations.
However there are some clear differences that we will explain together in order to ease your mind and make you understand how it works.
Let's see:

A. The future

The future tense in French is only used to talk about actions that will happen in the future like its name indicates.
Examples:
Demain je t'apporterai des fleurs.
Il sera présent à la fête.
Nous irons chez ma mère ce week-end.

B. The present conditional

This mode is used for many things:

a) to show that an action depends on a condition
*S'il ne pleuvait pas, nous pourrions aller marcher. (they cannot go on a walk since it's raining)
*J'irais au supermarché si j'avais de l'argent. (he/she cannot go to the supermarket since he/she has no money).

b) to express a wish, a regret, a desire
*J'aimerais visiter toute l'Europe.

c) to be polite
*Accepteriez-vous cette danse?

d) to give a piece of advice
*Tu devrais faire attention à toi quand tu sors si tard.

e) to make a supposition
*Apparemment il serait encore là.

f) to express a future in the past tense
*Je pensais que tu le ferais avant que je ne rentre.