The Form of the Past Conditional - The Verbs of the 3rd 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 past conditional.

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

In this lesson, we will study the form of the past participles of the verbs of the 3^rd group. For more details about the past participles, please review the lessons on the Passé Composé. You can also review the Past Conditional of the Verbs of the 1^st and 2^nd Group for more details about the verbs used with the auxiliary « être ».

The past participles of the verbs ending in “ir”

Don’t confuse the verbs of the third group that end in “ir” with the verbs of the second group. There is ONE important difference between the two categories of verbs: The present participle of all the verbs of the second group end in “issant”, whereas the present participle of the verbs of the third group ending in “ir” end in “ant”.