The Subjunctive and the Conditional in French

This is an area I've been directed to study. I have to say I'm hazy about the real difference between the subjunctive and the conditional in French. Perhaps I'm not the only one.

So I found this useful: The Subjunctive and the Conditional in French. Here's what the author has to say.

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It’s all about moods

1) Forms 

Before figuring out the subjunctive and conditional in French, let’s have a quick peek at the forms, in case you don’t have them memorized.

Subjunctive	Conditional
que je parle que tu parles qu’il parle que nous parlions que vous parliez qu’ils parlent	je parlerais tu parlerais il parlerait nous parlerions vous parleriez ils parleraient

 

Note that the subjunctive is formed by taking the present indicative of the ils form and adding the endings, -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent. The conditional is formed by taking the future stem (usually the infinitive) and adding the imperfect endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient (of course dropping the final -e from -re verbs).

For further information on forming these two moods, you should consult a dictionary. This article deals with when to use them, a far trickier proposition.

2) Background

The rules I’m about to give, properly applied, are what I call 90% rules. That is, they’re not in a grammar book, but they work 90% or better of the time. Whether you’re taking an exam or trying to get by as a pretty good, but not fluent, French speaker in France, they should carry you through. And they should even give you enough of an idea of the mindset behind these moods that if you’re in France you can figure out the last 5-10% on your own.

Before we begin, there is one other thing we need to mention, and that is the indicative. This is the form you use without even thinking about what it is: Parlez-vous français? Oui, je parle français. Il est 9h. Il pleut. These are all in the indicative mood. The French, incidentally, speak of the indicative mode, that is, it’s a manner of speaking, not a mood, per se. The indicative mood shows that the speaker is indicating something. There’s no judgment, no hesitation, no doubt in the speaker’s mind. He or she is just stating what is – as far as he or she knows.

Moods in French distinguish the relationship between the speaker, the statement and objective reality. One way to think of French modes that may be helpful is to consider them as giving signals. That is, in using one mood instead of another, the speaker is giving the listener a cue as to how to take what he or she is saying. Someone speaking in the indicative is showing that he or she is merely giving information. There is no emotional content, no judgment and no meaningful uncertainty. Just the facts.

3) The conditional

3a) The conditional is not an exceptionally troubling mood to understand – once you get the logic behind it. The conditional is used to make a statement that depends on a condition. If I were rich, I would buy a Mercedes. (Si j’étais riche, j’acheterais une Mercedes.)    (condition – thing that will be true if the condition is true = si + imperfect – conditional) This is pure and simple conditional: There is a condition (expressed with the imperfect in French) and then there is a statement in the conditional. The statement in the conditional will be true if the condition in the imperfect is met. The author is not rich. And he doesn’t have a Mercedes. I.e., the condition in the imperfect isn’t met so the statement in the conditional is not true. But drop a million bucks on my doorstep and I will have my Mercedes. Because then the condition will be met, making the statement in the conditional true. 3b) There are two uses of the conditional that trouble. The first (though more obscure) is the use of the conditional for the future in indirect discourse. What’s that mean? An example will make it clear: He said he would bring wine. (Il a dit qu’il apporterait du vin.) In this sentence, the condition isn’t so obvious. There isn’t a big ol’ if-clause flagging it. There are two other ways of writing this sentence: with direct discourse, and with what it means to the French speaker. He said, “I will bring some wine.” (Il a dit, “j’apporterai du vin.”)

Now you see why I said it was the future for indirect discourse. When you give the actual speech (direct discourse) it is in the future. But what does our final sentence mean to a French speaker?

If he does what he said he would do, he will bring some wine.

   (condition – statement limited by the condition)

One could also say:

If he does not do what he said he’d do, he will not bring any wine.

   (The condition is not met so the second half is not the case.)

The French speaker uses the conditional for this type of sentence (as do we) because he does not have objective knowledge of whether the wine is to be brought. He only knows what a person said he or she would do. At 10 o’clock, people might be saying, “Hurray! Tom brought the wine.” They might also be saying, “That lousy Tom forgot the wine,” or that he didn’t show up at all. By then, there might be objective knowledge of whether the wine was brought. But for now – at the time of our example sentence – the bringing of wine was a thing that would be true if Tom’s word was good and false if it was not. It was dependent on a condition.

3c) The last form of the conditional we’re going to look at is the most common and makes the least sense on its face. This is the use of the conditional for the sake of politeness.

Would you like to go to the movies with me? (Voudriez-vous m’accompagner au cinema?)

The if-clauses you could fill in are numerous: “If I’m lucky…” “If you are able…” “If God in His heaven smiles down on me…” You get the picture. Let’s flip this around to see what we’re talking about:

You would like to go to the movies with me?

Or, as you are hoping:

You would like to go to the movies with me.

This is the place where the conditional starts screaming to be in the subjunctive (about which we’ll hear next) but doesn’t actually get there because, alas, it’s not your emotions that get to decide whether Sally or June or Joe or whomever wants to go to the movies with you; their response does. So what we have is a statement that may be true:

You would like to go to the movies with me. -> You want to go to the movies with me.

or may be false:

You would like to go to the movies with me (if I were someone else, if you weren’t so busy, etc.). -> You don’t want to go to the movies with me.

Because it is a statement that is not yet known to be true or false but may or may not be depending on the response, it is conditioned, and thus in the conditional. Here are a few more.

Could you help me with this document? (Pourriez-vous m’aider avec ce document?)

Possible answers include: I can help you with this document (I have the time, know how to fix it, etc.). I can’t help you with this document (I’m too busy, don’t know Microsoft Word, etc.).

Will you (would you) have some oysters? (Vous prendriez des huîtres?)

Possible answers: I will have some oysters (I love them, I want to be polite, etc.). I won’t have some oysters (I’m allergic to them, I don’t put slimy things in my mouth, not on your life, etc.).

3e) To recap, the conditional is used if the statement in the conditional may be true or may be false depending on a condition, but it is not yet known whether the condition has been met.

Part 2: The Subjunctive

4) We saw the forms for the subjunctive on page 1, section 1. Just to briefly review, the endings -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent are added to the present indicative ils form without the -ent. Up next is the hard part, usage of the subjunctive.

In French, there are four moods. We have thus far seen two of them: Indicative Describes things as they are to the best of the knowledge of the speaker. Conditional Describes things that may or may not be true, depending on circumstances. The third mood, the subjunctive, is far and away the trickiest. Like the conditional, the subjunctive is not used for simple statements of fact. But rather than depending on an objective condition, it depends on subjective perception. Use of the subjunctive cues the listener that the content of the phrase is strongly affected by the speaker’s beliefs, thoughts, perceptions or emotions. I like to say that it’s all in the speaker’s head, because in a way, it really is. 4a) There are two ways that a phrase can be all in a speaker’s head. The first of these is if the content of the phrase does not exist in reality, only in the imagining of the speaker: I don’t think he is coming. (Je ne crois pas qu’il vienne.) It is unlikely she will have enough time to help us. (Il est peu probable qu’elle ait assez de temps pour nous aider.) In both these examples, the second part of the sentence is not established fact. In the first, it’s even believed to be false! That is, the gentleman’s arrival and the lady’s time are not things of which we are assured. They are hypotheticals postulated for the sake of the argument. Let’s look at some more: I doubt you’re right. (Je doute que vous ayez raison.) It is not certain that the president will decide that way. (Il n’est pas certain que le président prenne cette décision.)

Again, the speaker is not making statements of fact. These are things envisioned in the speaker’s mind so that their likelihood can be discussed.

There is one example in this category that is particularly tricky:

Before he comes, the bedroom must be cleaned. (Avant qu’il vienne, il faut nettoyer la chambre.)

The first phrase is in the subjunctive because the action hasn’t taken place, therefore it must be at this point only in the speaker’s mind.

4b) The second use of the subjunctive will seem the most bizarre to English speakers, and it is the reason I characterize the subjunctive as the “all in your head” mood. In French, there are times when a speaker’s attitude or view about something – even if it is factually known – is the overriding concern in the sentence:

I am happy she is coming. (Je suis content qu’elle vienne.)

She is sad that it is raining. (Elle est triste qu’elle pleuve.)

I regret the fact that he is unhappy. (Je regrette qu’il soit mécontent.)

The primary clause in all these sentences indicates an emotion of the speaker/subject of the sentence. As a result, it is understood that the events in the second part exist not as independent information about the external world, but as imagined events that serve as emotional stimuli for the mind of the subject.

For example, in the first sentence it does not matter whether the girl is or is not coming. What matters is that her not coming would provoke sadness in me. Likewise, we can say of the girl in the second sentence that rain provoked sadness. Whether or not it is raining is not at issue; her response to the rain is. We could therefore go out on a limb and say that were it not raining, she might be happy (or might not) but that once rain started, unhappiness would necessarily ensue since the idea of it raining provokes sadness.

If all the above seemed like too much, why not move on to the third and when we recap the moods it may make more sense.

4c) Our third use of the subjunctive mingles the first and second. It expresses things that may or may not be so and how the subject of the sentence would like to see them. It is what in some forms might be called the subjunctive of the imperative. Forget explanations, here’s an example:

I wish that you would help me. (Je veux que tu m’aides.)

We ask that you would come as soon as possible. (Nous prions que vous veniez aussitôt que possible.)

Long live the king! (Vive le roi !)

The third sentence could be expanded to “We desire that the king would live a long time” (Nous désirons que le roi vive). In all three cases, the subject is expressing what he/she/they would like to see the subject of the subjunctive clause do. We can imagine the subject of the sentence imagining the actions in question coming to pass and the good things that would result.

Now comes the recap, after which all will make sense. Right?

5) The three main moods of French (we’ll leave the imperative for another day).

Indicative	Something the speaker takes to be true.
Conditional	Something that may be true or may be false, depending on whether a condition is met.
Subjunctive	Something that effectively takes place in the subject’s/speaker’s mind because it is either a matter of envisioning a thing not known to be true or focusing on the emotion or feeling the thing provokes rather than the fact of the thing.