Conditional

Morphology

In the majority of the Romance languages, future and conditional was formed starting from a periphrasis made up of the infinitive of the verb concerned and auxiliary to have combined at the present (for the future) or with imperfect (for the conditional one). Maybe, for the verb cantare , forms * cantare habeo and * cantare habebam (I have to sing, I had to sing). It is supposed that this tendency to periphrasis, already present in traditional Latin, was essential when the future, abused by the phonetic evolution, became less and less discernible. As for conditional, there did not exist in Latin. One can notice that the use of periphrastic futures is a constant of the language, and that forms such as “I will leave” or “I must leave” are frequently used in the current language.

Employment in the French language

Parallelism between future and conditional is checked on the level of the use of these two times (or rather four, by counting the former future and the conditional last one, which is added to the “simple” future and the conditional present). Some grammairiens, in particular at the school level, distinguish from the temporal values and the modal values of the future and the conditional one. The idea is not bad in oneself, even if it is especially used to try to overcome the objective nonsense that there is to regard the conditional one as a mode, and not future.

Fact subjected to a condition

It is this employment which was worth with conditional its name. The following examples are called by traditional grammars potential , unreal of the present and unreal of last the , according to a diagram copied on Latin:

Potential: “If you came tomorrow, I would be content. ” (implied: you still have time to come)
Irréel from the present: “If you came today, I would be content. ” (implied: you are too far to quickly come)
Irréel from the last one: “If you had come yesterday, I would have been content. ” (implied: you did not come in any event)

It is noted that in French, contrary to Latin, there does not exist any morphological distinction between the potential and the unreal one of the present: the difference is semantic and is done thanks to the context.

One can also translate certain provisory clauses by the future of the code; one speaks about future with modal value of conditional or hypothetical :

Hypothetical: “If you come tomorrow, I will be content. ”

Expression of an assumption

An eigenvalue with conditional, but also with the former future. In the first case one deals with assumption frequently employed by the journalists for showing well that they do not take again on their account the fact that they quote (proceeded of modalisation). In the second case, it is often a question of being reassured by transforming an assumption into quasi-certainty:

“the killer would be hidden in wood surrounding; he would have violated his victim before cutting the throat of it. ” (conditional)
“Jean-Pierre is late; it will undoubtedly have been delayed by the congestions. ” (future former)

Expression of the imaginary one

There still, future and conditional can be put in parallel. For example in this childish play, the future indicates how will be carried out the play, while the conditional one exposes which could be the conditions of this play:

“Me I will be the doctor and you you will be the patient. ” (future)
“Me I would be the doctor and you you would be the patient. ” (conditional)

The conditional one translates here a weaker certainty when emulously of the other child to join the play.

Polished request

One deals with turnings using the verbs to be able or to want like semi-auxiliaries. Once more, this kind of sentence can make use of the future or conditional, all being a business of nuances:

“will you Be able to make the crockery? ” (future)
“could you pass salt to me? ” (conditional)
“would you Like to close the door well? ” (conditional)

The conditional one brings a degree of courtesy moreover compared to the future.

The expression of the future

In the indirect speech, the sequence of tenses imposes that, when the principal one is at a time of the past, the conditional present replaces the future (one speaks about future in the past ). Thus the sentence:

“As soon as it does not rain any more, I will seek mushrooms. ”

becomes, in an account with the indirect speech at the present:

“Jacques announces that, as soon as it does not rain any more, it will seek mushrooms. ”

but becomes, with the last one:

“Jacques announced that, as soon as it would not rain any more, it would seek mushrooms. ”

This value of conditional is essential, because it is certainly most frequent in the written texts, whether the indirect speech or the free indirect speech is used. The conditional one plays there the part of future compared to the past, completely in conformity with its morphology. This employment pushes certain linguists (but this point is very disputed) to regard the conditional one as a time of the code (see further statute from mode).

The conditional one in other languages

List languages using the conditional one (not-exhaustive):

English
Spanish
Italian

Dispute of the statute of mode

The conditional one is regarded by traditional and school grammars as a mode. However, at least in the French language, its morphology and its various employment show that it is indissociable Future , time of the code. Under these conditions, it is difficult to make a mode of it, or it would be necessary to consider an at the same time conditional and future mode including (solution suggested by Henri Yvon, which called this suppositive mode ). Another solution: to consider that the future and the conditional one are both of times of the code. It is what the linguist Gustave Guillaume proposed, who suggested calling the future first categorical and the future second hypothetical . The conditional term even of is disputed because this form has an employment much broader, as we saw.

See too

List of the concepts used in linguistics
Conditional last

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