1.60520 · Section 1: Grammar

Verbs: the future and conditional

Key learnings

Future and conditional share one stem
The future simple (je parlerai — I will speak) and the conditional (je parlerais — I would speak) share the same stem and differ only in their endings (future -ai/-as/-a…; conditional -ais/-ait…, the same as the imperfect). The stem is the infinitive for -er/-ir verbs, or the infinitive minus final -e for -re verbs. So parler → je parlerai / parlerais; vendre → elle vendra / vendrait. Full table in the note.
Irregular future/conditional stems
Several common verbs use an irregular stem for both the future and the conditional, but keep the regular endings. Learn the stems: être → ser-, avoir → aur-, aller → ir-, faire → fer-, pouvoir → pourr-, vouloir → voudr-, devoir → devr-, venir → viendr-, voir → verr-. So je serai/serais, j'irai/irais. Note the doubled -rr- in pourrai, verrai — a frequent slip is a single r. The stem is fixed across all six persons. Full table in the note.

Common mistakes

Drawn from real examiner reports.

Future or present used for "would"

A "would you like / would you do" task needs the conditional, not the future or present. Substitutions: je vais acheter instead of j'achèterais ("I would buy"); j'aime instead of j'aimerais. The near-future and present say what WILL or DOES happen; the conditional says what WOULD happen under a condition or as a wish — the wrong tense caps Task Completion.

cambridge-0520 digest (w22 Writing 41 Task 5): candidates use future or present instead of conditional for "what would you like" tasks — je vais acheter instead of j'achèterais.

Dropping the doubled r (pourr-, verr-)

Two irregular stems carry a doubled r: pouvoir → pourr- and voir → verr-. They are often written with one r — pourai (should be pourrai), vera (should be verra) — which loses the accuracy mark even when the tense was right. This is a spelling slip, not a tense error: identify the future/conditional, then copy the stem in full.

si-clause sequence of tenses

French si-clauses follow a strict sequence of tenses: si + present → future (Si j'ai le temps, je viendrai); si + imperfect → conditional (Si j'avais le temps, je viendrais). A cited failure wrote si je perdie for the correct si je perdais, needing a conditional to follow. Never mix present with conditional, or imperfect with future.

cambridge-0520 digest (w22 Writing 41 Task 5): si je perdie instead of the correct imperfect si je perdais paired with a conditional consequence — the hardest task of that sitting, two verbs both had to be correct.

Keeping the final -e on -re verbs

A -re verb drops its final -e before the future/conditional endings: vendre → vendr-, giving je vendrai (future) / je vendrais (conditional). Keeping the -e (vendrerai) or writing vendrea is wrong. The stem always ends in -r before the ending, because both tenses are built on an -r stem: prendre → prendrai, écrire → écrirai, dire → dirai.

Future -ai vs conditional -ais

The only thing separating the future from the conditional in the je form is one letter: je parlerai (-ai, "I will speak") vs je parlerais (-ais, "I would speak"). Dropping or adding the final -s switches the tense by accident. Read the task: a plan or certainty → future (je finirai); a wish or a si + imperfect condition → conditional (je finirais).

Near-future is not the future simple

Two myths here. First, that je vais parler (near-future) and je parlerai (future simple) are always interchangeable: often in speech, but a range task wants the future simple — using only the near-future caps Range. Second, that "would" can be said with the present: je veux is "I want" (blunt), while "I would like" is the conditional je voudrais (polite).

cambridge-0520 digest, Writing key messages (all sittings): Task Completion is capped by tense mismatch — answering in a tense different from the one signalled by the task/bullet means the requirement is not fulfilled.

Exam tips

Signal, stem, endings, doubled r
Build any future/conditional form: (1) spot the signal — a future marker or si + imperfect; (2) pick the stem — the infinitive (drop -e for -re) or the irregular; (3) add the endings — future -ai…, conditional -ais…; (4) check the doubled r (pourr-, verr-).
Match the si-clause pairing
In a si-clause, match the pairing exactly: si + present → future (Si j'ai le temps, je viendrai); si + imperfect → conditional (Si j'avais le temps, je viendrais). Never pair present with conditional, or imperfect with future — check every "if…" sentence.
Show a future and a conditional for Range
In Writing, deliberately include one future and one conditional sentence alongside a past tense — varied time frames reliably reach the higher Range band. A conditional wish (j'aimerais…, je voudrais…) also reads as polite.

Revision notes