Past counterfactuals in French: decisions and consequences
A missed meeting cannot be changed, but you can explain what you would have done differently. Use si + a past perfect condition, then a past conditional result. You will evaluate one decision and give two imagined past consequences.
Recover the familiar pieces
Si j'avais une voiture, je pourrais aller au bureau means ‘If I had a car, I could go to the office’: an imagined present situation, with avais and pourrais, not a completed past action. For an action earlier than another past moment, French combines avoir or être in the imperfect with a past participle: j'avais su (‘I had known’), j'étais allé (‘I had gone’). Keep that compound form for the past condition in this lesson. Savoir here means knowing information, not being able to do something.
Si j'avais une voiture, je pourrais aller au bureau.
Words for looking back
Réunion is a meeting and problème a problem; use la réunion and le problème. Savoir is to know, appeler to call by phone, aller to go, comprendre to understand, parler to talk and revenir to come back. The participles used below are su, appelé, allé, compris, parlé and revenu; plus tard means ‘later’. Listen to the cards, then listen for those words in the conversation.
Two colleagues missed the meeting
Speaker A is Hugo and B is Luc; both are men and neither attended yesterday's meeting. It was at nine, Marta was there, and both colleagues still lack the explanation of the problem. After working elsewhere, both came home at noon. Hugo says he did not know its time; Luc says he was not there. Their next lines imagine different choices, rather than report events that happened: Hugo would have called Marta, and Luc would have talked to her at the meeting. Que means ‘that’, à neuf heures ‘at nine’, and je n'étais pas ‘I wasn't’.
- A
Je ne savais pas que la réunion était à neuf heures.
- B
Je n'étais pas à la réunion.
- A
Si j'avais su, j'aurais appelé Marta.
- B
Si j'étais allé à la réunion, j'aurais parlé à Marta.
Change the past condition
Si j'avais su means ‘If I had known’: avais is the imperfect auxiliary and su the participle of savoir. Si j'étais allé à la réunion means ‘If I had gone to the meeting’: aller uses être, so the auxiliary is étais. In these counterfactual conditions, use si + past perfect, not si j'aurais su. English also separates ‘if I had known’ from ‘I would have called’; do not put the result's conditional into the French si clause. Here the speakers did not know in time or did not go; they are imagining the opposite. The same past perfect can report a real earlier action in a narrative: si and the context give it this unreal use.
Si j'avais / j'étais participe passé, …
Si j'avais su, j'aurais appelé Marta.
Si j'avais su, je serais allé à la réunion.
Si j'étais allé à la réunion, j'aurais compris le problème.
If I had gone to the meeting, I would have understood the problem.
Give two past consequences
The past conditional combines the conditional of the auxiliary with the participle: j'aurais appelé (‘I would have called’), j'aurais compris (‘I would have understood’), je serais allé (‘I would have gone’), je serais revenu (‘I would have come back’). With these verbs, keep the auxiliary used in the compound past: avoir with appeler/comprendre/parler, être with aller/revenir. English uses ‘would have’ for all of them, so French serais is not an instruction to translate ‘would be’. Under the same condition, Luc imagines understanding the problem and coming back later: one benefit and one cost of attending. These are his imagined consequences, not proof of what would certainly have happened. Allé and revenu describe a man here; a woman says allée and revenue with être, with no change in their pronunciation in these examples.
Si …, j'aurais / je serais participe passé
Si j'étais allé à la réunion, j'aurais compris le problème.
If I had gone to the meeting, I would have understood the problem.
Si j'étais allé à la réunion, je serais revenu plus tard.
Si j'étais allé à la réunion, j'aurais parlé à Marta.
Si j'avais su, je serais allé à la réunion.
Recognition: a consequence that lasts until now
Si j'étais allé à la réunion, je comprendrais le problème maintenant means ‘If I had gone to the meeting, I would understand the problem now’. The condition is in the past, but maintenant points to a present result, so comprendrais is a simple conditional, without aurais. Compare the past result j'aurais compris with the present result je comprendrais. Recognize this supported contrast; you do not need to produce mixed conditions in this lesson.
Si j'étais allé à la réunion, je comprendrais le problème maintenant.
If I had gone to the meeting, I would understand the problem now.
Speak as Hugo, then evaluate his choice
Speak as Hugo about yesterday, before reading the models: say ‘If I had known, I would have called Marta’, then ‘If I had known, I would have gone to the meeting’. Now keep the condition ‘If I had gone to the meeting’ and give two past results: ‘I would have understood the problem’ and ‘I would have come back later’. Hugo is speaking at home, so come back means return home after the meeting; later compares with his actual return time. Use the vocabulary already shown, and keep the two results in separate sentences. Check the four models in that order and listen to them.
Si j'avais su, j'aurais appelé Marta.
Si j'avais su, je serais allé à la réunion.
Si j'étais allé à la réunion, j'aurais compris le problème.
If I had gone to the meeting, I would have understood the problem.
Si j'étais allé à la réunion, je serais revenu plus tard.
Condition first, imagined result second
Si + avais/étais + participle changes an unreal past condition; aurais/serais + participle gives an imagined past result. Choose the auxiliary with the verb, not with the English translation. These three rows summarize forms you have already heard.
| Unreal past condition | Imagined past result |
|---|---|
| Si j'avais su | j'aurais appelé Marta |
| Si j'étais allé à la réunion | j'aurais compris le problème |
| Si j'étais allé à la réunion | je serais revenu plus tard |