Distinguish a future plan, a hypothetical result, and a cautious report.
Prerequisite: the earlier lessons in this course, especially pronoun references and verb groups. Use the previous link if these are unfamiliar.
You can answer in English. Keep the translation closed for your first attempt. Dictionary use is compatible with independent reading; a successful exercise is not a fluency certificate.
Read before the explanation
Read for the main meaning first. Then consider this question: Which sentence reports a possible closure, which describes a hypothetical rental, and which reports Sami’s future intention?
First reading · Original course text · about 67 words
Une deuxième rencontre
Nora va organiser une deuxième rencontre. Si la salle est libre, elle aura lieu samedi. Lina viendra avec deux collègues. Sami a dit qu’il préparerait une affiche. Il aimerait aussi présenter ses dessins. Si le public était plus nombreux, Nora louerait une autre salle, mais aucune décision n’est prise. Selon un voisin, le café voisin fermerait bientôt. Nora veut vérifier cette information avant de changer ses plans.
Vocabulary for this passage
louer
to rent
nombreux
numerous or large in number
bientôt
soon
selon
according to
aucune
no, feminine singular
un plan
a plan
English reading, after your attempt
Nora is going to organize a second meeting. If the room is available, it will take place on Saturday. Lina will come with two colleagues. Sami said he would prepare a poster. He would also like to present his drawings. If the audience were larger, Nora would rent another room, but no decision has been made. According to a neighbour, the neighbouring café may reportedly close soon. Nora wants to check that information before changing her plans.
One contextual rendering, not a word-for-word substitution rule. Try another reading with this reveal closed.
Recognize future forms
Aller plus infinitive often gives a coming action: elle va lire. The simple future uses endings ai, as, a, ons, ez, ont on a future stem: elle lira. Frequent irregular stems include ser- for être, aur- for avoir, ir- for aller, fer- for faire, and viendr- for venir. A future form expresses a future perspective, not proof that the event will occur.
Recognize a future without certifying the event
Future wording locates an event after a reference moment; it does not verify the event. In the fictional announcement Le jardin ouvrira mercredi, le jardin means the garden, ouvrir means open, and mercredi means Wednesday. Ouvrira presents the opening as future. That could be a schedule, prediction, or commitment depending on the context. A reader can report what the announcement says without guaranteeing that the garden actually opens. Keeping tense separate from evidence is essential when reading plans that may later change or fail.
The ending helps distinguish future from present, but recognize the whole word. Compare elle prépare, she prepares, with elle préparera, she will prepare. Préparer means prepare; the future contains a recognizable stem plus -a for this subject. In Les bénévoles prépareront le jardin, les bénévoles means the volunteers and prépareront is plural future. The final -ont belongs to that verb. It is not a separate occurrence of ont, have. Spacing and the subject prevent a mistaken analysis as a compound past form.
Date and construction are different evidence
French wording
Reading consequence
Le jardin va fermer dans trois ans.
Coming-action form; date is three years away.
Le jardin fermera dans cinq minutes.
Simple future; date is five minutes away.
Le jardin ferme demain.
Present form with explicit future date.
The time phrases determine the stated distances. None of these forms proves the closure, and the construction called near future can refer to a distant event.
Some common future stems do not resemble their present forms closely. Le jardin sera accessible uses sera, a future of être, be, and accessible, accessible. Les visiteurs auront une entrée séparée uses auront, a future of avoir, have, and une entrée séparée, a separate entrance. These sentences describe future situations rather than new actions performed by their grammatical subjects. Visitors having an entrance are not thereby building it. Subject identifies a grammatical relationship; it does not always identify the agent who performs an action.
The coming-action construction uses present aller plus an infinitive, the dictionary form of a verb. In Éva va planter un arbre, planter means plant and un arbre means a tree. Va planter presents a coming action or intention. Compare Éva va au jardin, where au jardin means to the garden. Without an infinitive, va here describes going somewhere. The nearby noun group is therefore not interchangeable with a second verb. Recognize what follows va before treating it as a future construction in your account.
Do not turn the labels near future and simple future into a fixed distance rule. Le jardin va fermer dans trois ans places closing three years away; dans trois ans means in three years. Le jardin fermera dans cinq minutes places closing five minutes away; cinq minutes means five minutes. The constructions can suggest different perspectives on the future, but either can appear with a close or distant date. Neither ending independently measures probability. Use the date, speaker, and surrounding explanation rather than inventing a confidence scale from the tense name.
Going somewhere or going to act
Coming action
Éva va planter un arbre.
Éva
Person planting
va planter
Coming-action group: finite verb plus planting infinitive
un arbre.
Object to be planted
Movement
Éva va au jardin.
Éva
Person travelling
va
Present movement verb
au jardin.
Destination of the movement
The infinitive makes the first sentence a coming-action construction. The destination phrase in the second sentence instead completes an ordinary statement about movement towards the garden.
Future time can also appear with present wording in schedules. Le train part demain à huit heures contains le train, train, part, leaves, demain, tomorrow, and à huit heures, at eight o'clock. The time expression makes the future reference explicit even though part is present. This does not erase the distinction between present and future forms. It shows that grammatical tense and the time discussed are related without being identical. In an actual report, publication date also matters when interpreting tomorrow; it is not automatically tomorrow relative to your reading day.
Recognize the conditional
The conditional uses the future stem with imperfect-style endings: elle lirait, nous irions, ils seraient. It can describe a hypothetical result, a polite request, or a future seen from the past. Elle a dit qu’elle viendrait means she said she would come; it is not automatically an uncertain rumour.
Distinguish uses of the conditional
The conditional shares its stem with the future but uses imperfect-style endings. Compare Éva construira une serre with Éva construirait une serre. Construire means build and une serre means a greenhouse. The first presents future building. The second needs context to identify a hypothetical outcome, a reported future, or another conditional use. Recognizing -rait gives you a form, not its complete interpretation. Do not translate would mechanically and stop. Ask what viewpoint or condition makes that wording appropriate in the surrounding paragraph.
A hypothetical result belongs to an imagined situation. Avec plus de place, Éva construirait une serre uses avec plus de place, with more space. The condition is expressed without si. The sentence does not announce that building has started, nor does it quantify how much space is missing. It asks the reader to consider what would follow under a changed circumstance. A condition can remain implicit in a longer discussion, so absence of an if clause does not force a journalistic or future-in-the-past interpretation of every conditional form.
One form, different contextual relationships
French wording
Reading consequence
Avec plus de place, Éva construirait une serre.
Building depends on an imagined circumstance.
Éva a expliqué qu'elle construirait une serre.
Building is later than the past explanation.
Selon une source anonyme, Éva construirait une serre.
Fictional report distances an unconfirmed claim.
Je voudrais visiter la serre.
Wish or request; no completed visit asserted.
The conditional ending recurs, but the opening words establish different relationships. An if-like circumstance, a past report, and an attribution cannot be substituted without changing the interpretation.
Future in the past shifts the reference point to an earlier statement or thought. In Lundi, Éva a expliqué qu'elle construirait une serre, lundi means Monday and expliquer means explain. The building is later than that explanation in the reported perspective. It might now be completed, still ahead, or abandoned. Construirait alone does not settle its relation to today's date. This use does not necessarily imply the writer doubts Éva. It preserves the future orientation of what she said while reporting her words from a past reference.
Journalistic distancing has a different purpose. The explicitly fictional news sentence Selon une source anonyme, Éva construirait une serre uses selon, according to, and une source anonyme, an unnamed source. Here the conditional can mark information the writer does not confirm. It need not mean that someone previously said will build, nor that more space is required. The sentence attributes a claim and leaves its verification open. Distancing is not a declaration that the claim is false. An English summary should preserve that evidential limitation instead of reporting construction as established fact.
Requests and wishes provide another contrast. Je voudrais visiter la serre uses voudrais, would like, visiter, visit, and la serre, the greenhouse. It expresses a wish or request rather than a claim that a visit occurred. Pourriez-vous ouvrir la porte ? uses pourriez, could you, and la porte, the door. In a request, the speaker seeks an action; the question is not necessarily an investigation into physical ability. Context tells you which reading fits. These polite forms do not make every nearby conditional a hypothetical prediction.
A reported future has its own reference time
Direct future statement
Éva dit : « Je construirai une serre. »
Éva dit :
Present reporting frame
« Je construirai
Future building from her present viewpoint
une serre. »
Object of the proposed building
Reported from the past
Éva a dit qu'elle construirait une serre.
Éva a dit
Past reporting event
qu'elle construirait
Building viewed as later than that statement
une serre.
Same proposed object
Changing the reporting viewpoint explains the conditional in the second panel. It does not independently announce doubt, confirm completion, or locate the building relative to the reader today.
English would also expresses repeated past behaviour, which French often gives with the imperfect. Chaque été, Éva visitait ce jardin uses chaque été, every summer, and visitait, visited habitually. English could say she would visit the garden every summer. That does not make visitait a French conditional. Read the repeated-time phrase and the actual ending together. The distinction matters in a story because a habitual visit belongs to the past pattern, whereas a hypothetical visit may never occur within the story at all.
Use the surrounding construction
Si elle a le temps, elle viendra uses present after si and future for the result. Si elle avait le temps, elle viendrait uses imperfect and conditional for a hypothetical situation. News also uses the conditional to distance an unconfirmed claim: le musée fermerait demain. Identify the context before translating would literally.
For a counterfactual past, si can introduce plus-que-parfait followed by a past conditional: si elle avait eu le temps, elle serait venue means if she had had time, she would have come. Si can also mean whether inside a question report: elle demande s’il vient means she asks whether he is coming. That is not a condition for her asking.
Read the condition and result as separate claims
A condition is a circumstance on which another statement depends; a result is what follows if that circumstance holds. Si la terre est sèche, Éva arrosera les plantes uses la terre, the soil, sèche, dry, arroser, water, and les plantes, the plants. Present est follows conditional si, while future arrosera states the result. The sentence does not assert that the soil is dry. Nor does it assert that watering has happened. It provides a conditional future relationship, leaving the condition's actual fulfilment to context.
The hypothetical pattern changes both verb groups. Si la terre était sèche, Éva arroserait les plantes uses imperfect était in the condition and conditional arroserait in the result. Here the imperfect does not automatically place dry soil in an earlier year. It helps frame an imagined situation. The writer may suggest distance from current circumstances, but the grammar is not a numerical probability forecast. Compare the open future condition and this hypothetical version without assigning invented percentages to either. Both require attention to the condition rather than confirmation of the result.
Identify a condition or an embedded question
French wording
Reading consequence
Si la terre est sèche, Éva arrosera les plantes.
Open condition with future result.
Si la terre était sèche, Éva arroserait les plantes.
Hypothetical circumstance and result.
Si Éva avait vu les plantes, elle les aurait arrosées.
Imagined alternative past outcome.
Paul demande si Éva arrosera les plantes.
Whether-question, not a condition on asking.
The introductory construction determines whether si expresses a condition or an embedded question. The different verb pairs preserve distinctions that a single English if can conceal.
A counterfactual past imagines a different outcome for an earlier situation. Si Éva avait vu les plantes, elle les aurait arrosées uses voir, see, and the object pronoun les for the plants. The earlier-past avait vu supplies the imagined condition; aurait arrosées is a past conditional giving its imagined consequence. In its normal counterfactual reading, the passage presents the seeing as unrealized in the relevant situation. It does not narrate an actual watering. The feminine plural ending refers to les plantes, the preceding direct object, not to several watering events.
Past conditional form does not always mean counterfactual result. In the fictional news sentence Selon un témoin, Éva aurait réparé la clôture, un témoin is a witness, réparer means repair, and la clôture means the fence. With no hypothetical condition supplied, the form can distance a report of an already completed repair. Compare Sans aide, Éva n'aurait pas réparé la clôture, where sans aide means without help. That imagines the outcome under different circumstances. Identify the construction before deciding whether reportedly repaired or would have repaired preserves the meaning.
Not every si introduces a condition. Paul demande si Éva arrosera les plantes uses demander in the sense ask. Here si means whether and introduces the question's content. It does not mean Paul asks only on condition that Éva waters. Future arrosera is possible in that embedded question. The classroom warning against future after conditional si therefore has a limited scope. It is not a ban on every future form that appears anywhere after the letters si in written French. The verb introducing the clause helps identify its function.
Move the negation, change the dependency
Absence is the condition
Si Éva ne vient pas, Paul arrosera les plantes.
Si Éva ne vient pas,
Condition is her not coming
Paul
Person assigned the result action
arrosera les plantes.
Watering stated under that condition
Presence is the condition
Si Éva vient, Paul n'arrosera pas les plantes.
Si Éva vient,
Condition is her coming
Paul
Same person
n'arrosera pas les plantes.
Non-watering stated under this condition
The panels differ in which clause contains negation. Neither sentence automatically establishes what Paul does when its own stated condition fails, so do not add that converse.
Negation must stay attached to the right side of a condition. Si Éva ne vient pas, Paul arrosera les plantes means Paul's watering depends on Éva not coming; venir means come. Compare Si Éva vient, Paul n'arrosera pas les plantes, where her coming is the condition and his non-watering is the result. Neither sentence alone tells us what happens in the opposite case. A conditional statement does not automatically state its converse. Keep both the location of the negative words and the direction of dependency visible when summarizing.
Verb recognition reference
French evidenceWhat it supports
elle parlera · elle parlerait
Future: will speak. Conditional: would speak, or another conditional use supplied by context.
elle sera · elle serait
Être: will be / would be.
elle aura · elle aurait
Avoir: will have / would have.
elle viendra · elle viendrait
Venir: will come / would come.
elle aurait annoncé
Past conditional: would have announced; reportedly announced in appropriate news context.
Recognize these forms in context. This reference is not an instruction to memorize every conjugation before continuing.
Inspect a sentence
A different case clears the selection, feedback, and worked reveal. Reset keeps the current case.
Nora envisage une salle plus grande.
Select the hypothetical result, not its condition.
Choose one segment, then check. Selection is not automatically marked. All cases are hand-annotated examples, not automatic grammar analysis.
Si le public était plus nombreux, Nora louerait une autre salle.
Worked sentence structure
French evidenceWhat it supports
Si le public était plus nombreux,
Hypothetical condition
Nora
Subject
louerait
Conditional result verb
une autre salle.
Object
Louerait belongs to the imagined result. The sentence does not announce a completed rental.
Compare time, hypothetical status, and attribution
The two sentence cases distinguish relationships within an authored example. Read their prompt before selecting: a condition, a result, and a reported future occupy different parts of a sentence. Check selection evaluates the selected segment against that case's key. It does not decide whether an arbitrary statement is true or whether your English summary is adequate. Use Worked sentence structure after making a decision to inspect the supplied labels. Then explain why that label fits this context rather than assuming a conditional ending always carries the same meaning.
For a fresh worked contrast, consider Paul pensait que la serre coûterait trop cher. Penser means think, coûter means cost, and trop cher means too much. The cost is viewed from Paul's earlier thought. The sentence reports his expectation, not the final bill. Compare Sans matériaux gratuits, la serre coûterait trop cher, where sans means without and des matériaux gratuits means free materials. That sentence describes an outcome under an imagined circumstance. The repeated cost vocabulary keeps the reference-point difference visible without requiring new conjugation practice.
What does the sentence commit the reader to?
French wording
Reading consequence
Paul pensait que la serre coûterait trop cher.
Reports his earlier expectation, not the final cost.
Sans matériaux gratuits, la serre coûterait trop cher.
Cost depends on an imagined resource situation.
Selon Paul, les plantes seraient malades.
Fictional attributed, distanced claim about plant health.
Each sentence requires preserving a qualification in the English account. An expectation, a hypothetical cost, and an attributed diagnosis provide different evidence even when conditional forms recur.
A prediction can be wrong without having been a grammatical conditional. In the fictional notice La serre sera prête vendredi, prête means ready and vendredi means Friday. If a later sentence says Les travaux ont pris du retard, the work ran late, the prediction has not become a conditional retroactively. You have a future statement followed by evidence that the schedule slipped. Conversely, a conditional report may later be confirmed. Distinguish the wording available at each reporting moment from your later knowledge of the outcome. Grammar records perspective, not omniscience.
Keep the evidence inside its attribution. Selon Paul, les plantes seraient malades uses malades, diseased or unwell. This fictional report gives Paul's claim, with conditional distancing in context. It does not diagnose the plants independently. If the next sentence says Éva examinera les feuilles, where examiner means examine and les feuilles means the leaves, the examination is still future. Do not use that promised examination as if it had already verified Paul's claim. A paragraph can combine a reported current state and a future investigation without settling the question.
Wish and commitment also differ in fictional dialogue. J'aimerais aider uses aimerais for would like and aider for help. J'aiderai samedi uses future aiderai and samedi, Saturday. The first expresses a desire; the second can function as a commitment in the right context. Neither guarantees that help occurs. If the narrative reports only the wish, summarizing it as a firm Saturday promise invents both strength and date. Interpret the speech act, what the speaker is doing with the sentence, alongside the tense form and any time expression.
Desire and future commitment
Wish
J'aimerais aider.
J'aimerais
Conditional expressing desire
aider.
Infinitive: desired helping action
Possible commitment
J'aiderai samedi.
J'aiderai
Future statement of helping
samedi.
Date specified for the help
The first panel gives a wish without a date. The second can make a dated commitment in context, but neither sentence independently proves that the helping later happens.
After using the cases, make a short account that states the relevant reference point and qualification. For the cost example, distinguish an earlier expectation from an imagined funding situation. For the plant example, keep Paul's claim separate from the proposed examination. Your account can remain in English and may note genuine ambiguity if surrounding context is missing. The page offers curated segment feedback, not an automatic grader of those accounts. Its vocabulary cards hide meanings again when you move between items; that behaviour provides another attempt, not evidence that the distinctions are permanently learned.
Read a new passage
Has Malik bought a ticket? Is taking the bus a settled plan?
Transfer reading · Original course text · about 37 words
Une possibilité
Si Malik trouve un billet, il partira demain. Il voudrait arriver avant midi. Sa sœur a promis qu’elle viendrait le chercher. Si elle travaillait ce jour-là, il prendrait le bus. Il n’a pas encore acheté son billet.
Vocabulary for this passage
promettre
to promise
voudrait
would like
partira
will leave
prendrait
would take
English reading, after your attempt
If Malik finds a ticket, he will leave tomorrow. He would like to arrive before noon. His sister promised she would come to meet him. If she were working that day, he would take the bus. He has not bought his ticket yet.
One contextual rendering, not a word-for-word substitution rule. Try another reading with this reveal closed.
Explain your reading
Use the passages above as evidence. Write or say your answer before opening a hint or worked answer. The page does not judge free-form responses.
Keep three uses distinct
Which sentence reports a possible closure, which describes a hypothetical rental, and which reports Sami’s future intention?
Hint
Inspect selon, si, and a dit.
Worked answer
French evidenceWhat it supports
Selon un voisin … fermerait bientôt
Attributed, unconfirmed closure report.
Sami a dit qu’il préparerait une affiche.
Reported future intention.
Compare the quoted wording with the interpretation alongside it. Keep the surrounding passage in view.
The neighbour’s closure report uses fermerait as distancing. Louerait is the hypothetical consequence of a larger audience. Préparerait is future from the viewpoint of Sami’s past statement. None alone proves the event occurs.
Do not confirm the journey too early
Has Malik bought a ticket? Is taking the bus a settled plan?
Hint
Read the final negative and the si clause.
Worked answer
French evidenceWhat it supports
Il n’a pas encore acheté son billet.
Ticket purchase has not happened yet.
Si elle travaillait … il prendrait le bus.
The bus belongs to a hypothetical contingency.
Compare the quoted wording with the interpretation alongside it. Keep the surrounding passage in view.
He has not bought a ticket yet. Taking the bus depends on the hypothetical situation of his sister working. Her promise is a reported commitment, not an already-completed pickup.
Review expressions in context
Changing sets restarts at the first item with its meaning hidden. Returning to an item also hides its meaning. Nothing is scheduled or stored after reload.
Item 1 of 6. Recall its meaning in this passage before revealing it.
louer
Meaning hidden
All review meanings
French evidenceWhat it supports
louer
to rent
nombreux
numerous or large in number
bientôt
soon
selon
according to
aucune
no, feminine singular
un plan
a plan
These are meanings in the lesson’s contexts. The same expression can have other meanings elsewhere.
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French reading record
Lesson: Read futures and conditionals
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This is a self-report, not an automatically graded language assessment.
Sources and next reading
The French passages, tasks, and explanations are original course material except the explicitly attributed short excerpt in lesson 26. News-style passages describe invented events. Fiction is not quoted from or attributed to Modiano. Translations give contextual readings, not universal word equivalents.
These selected university grammar references support the mechanisms. Their exercises and characters are not reused. Automated tests check authored data and interface behavior, not linguistic correctness, learning effectiveness, or a CEFR level. No independent French-teacher review has been completed.
For easier continuous reading, reread an earlier passage with its support closed, then try a graded reader on a familiar subject. Revisit several useful expressions in a later session.