Passé Simple + Conditionnel Présent
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HaKwiziq community member
Passé Simple + Conditionnel Présent
In the Writing Challenge 26 level C1, the sentence "... Pompidou décida de faire construire ... un centre ... qui PERMETTRAIT ..." uses Conditionnel Présent in the subordinate clause even though the decision was made in the past (Passé Simple). Is it incorrect to use Conditionnel Passé?
This question relates to:French lesson "Conjugate most French verbs in the conditional present (Le Conditionnel Présent)"
Asked 7 years ago
Bonjour Ha !
What an interesting question!
In this case, Le Conditionnel Présent is used as "the past of the future", to express an action in the past, BUT that occurred AFTER the action expressed in Le Passé Simple (décida).
Here Pompidou decided to build the centre BEFORE this centre would allow to combine all these other departments.
Le Conditionnel Passé here would make it an unrealised hypothesis ("qui aurait permis" = which would have allowed...), so it couldn't work here.
I hope that's helpful!
What an interesting question!
In this case, Le Conditionnel Présent is used as "the past of the future", to express an action in the past, BUT that occurred AFTER the action expressed in Le Passé Simple (décida).
Here Pompidou decided to build the centre BEFORE this centre would allow to combine all these other departments.
Le Conditionnel Passé here would make it an unrealised hypothesis ("qui aurait permis" = which would have allowed...), so it couldn't work here.
I hope that's helpful!
HaKwiziq community member
Aurélie, thanks for responding to my question. So in general, could we use the present conditional conjugation of a verb to express a wish in the past for a future that actually did become a reality later on?
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