The Form of the Conditional Past -The Verbs of the 1^st and 2^nd Group

There are four main verb moods (modes de temps) in French: the indicative, the subjunctive, the conditional and the imperative. In this chapter, we will study the conditional. There are two tenses that use the conditional mood: the present conditional and the past conditional.

In this chapter, we will study the past conditional, its form and its use.The first part will be devoted to the form of the conditional past. In this lesson, we will study the form of the verbs of the first and second group.

The past conditional is formed with the auxiliary avoir or être conjugated into the present conditional and the past participle of the verb.

Verbs of the First Group

The verbs of the first group all end in “er” in the infinitive form. They are called regular because they all follow the same conjugation rule except for a few verbs. Note that even though the verb aller ends in “er”, it does not belong to the first group; it belongs to the third group.