I always understood "le conditionnel présent" to mean "could," but here you're indicating that it means "would," which has a completely different meaning. Is that just true with "aller" or how do you tell when it's could or would?
Would vs. could
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Would vs. could
Hi Rebecca,
The conditional of any verb is 'would' -
I would go = J'irais
I would eat = Je mangerais
We would talk = Nous parlerions
To say you could do something you will use pouvoir -
Je pourrais vous voir = I could see you
Vous pourriez repasser demain = You could call again tomorrow
Take a look at the following lesson for more examples -
Conjugate pouvoir in the conditional mood in French = could (Le Conditionnel Présent)
Hope this helps!
Hi Rebecca,
Interesting point.
As I understand the situation -- "could" is the past tense of "can"
Whereas "would" is the conditional of "will"
So I'm not sure if I can agree with you that "could" is conditional present.
Let's see what others may comment.
Bonne journée
Jim
To make this issue less ambiguous, use "to be able to" instead of "can":
Je pourrais vous voir -- I would be able to see you = I could see you
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