French future and conditional, explained
For plans, French speakers mostly use aller + infinitive (je vais partir). The futur simple is for predictions, promises and more formal speech. The conditional softens requests and expresses what would happen.
Si-clauses tie them together: the tense after si decides the tense in the other half of the sentence.
The essentials
- Near future: aller + infinitive (on va manger).
- Futur simple: infinitive + -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont (je parlerai), with irregular stems such as ser-, aur-, ir-, fer-, pourr-.
- Conditional: the future stem + imparfait endings (je voudrais, ce serait).
- Si + present → future; si + imparfait → conditional; si + plus-que-parfait → past conditional. Never the future or conditional right after si.
Every lesson on this topic
Each lesson has a full explanation, examples you can listen to, and exercises with answers.
A1 (the A1 course)
- Near future: Je vais manger
B1 (the B1 course)
- Simple future: Je parlerai, nous finirons
- Simple future: Je serai, j'aurai, j'irai, je ferai
- Quand + future: Quand je serai grand…
- Present conditional: Je voudrais, tu pourrais
- Si clauses: Si j'avais de l'argent, je voyagerais
B2 (the B2 course)
- Past conditional: J'aurais dû, il serait venu
- Si + plus-que-parfait → conditionnel passé: Si j'avais su, je serais venu
- Futur antérieur: J'aurai fini, elle sera partie
In the app, these lessons are taught one idea at a time with audio, practised until you get them right on three separate days, and brought back when your own French shows a mistake on them.
Other topics
- The French subjunctive, explained
- French past tenses, explained
- French articles and noun gender
- French pronouns, from je to lequel
- French verbs and tenses
- French adjectives and adverbs
- French negation
- Asking questions in French
- French prepositions and conjunctions
- French numbers, time and dates
- French idioms and useful structures