Real conditions in French: make a backup plan
You have arranged an outing to a park, with a nearby café as a backup. Say what you will do if something changes, then give a visitor an instruction. The key is to separate the condition, expressed with si and the present, from the result in the future or the instruction in the imperative.
Bring back a plan and an instruction
Demain means tomorrow; j'irai au café means I'll go to the café. Irai is the future of aller (to go): je becomes j' before its vowel. The future describes a plan here, without a rule about how distant it is. For an instruction to someone you address as vous, use allez (go), without saying vous: allez au café. We will add a condition to these familiar forms.
Demain, j’irai au café.
Two places and two possible problems
Le parc is the park; le café is the café as a place, not the drink. Fermé means closed. Pleuvoir means to rain; the form we need is il pleut (it rains), heard in the next examples. This il names no person, like English weather it. Si means if in an open condition: we do not yet know whether it will happen. Au combines à and le: au café, to the café.
Before leaving: keep another option
Tomorrow you plan to go to the park. You have already identified a nearby café together. Listen to the first sentence: if the park is closed, you will go to that café. You are not saying the park is closed; you are preparing for that possibility. In the second sentence, rain leads you to a café, without identifying which one: dans un café. Si becomes s' before il: s'il pleut.
Si le parc est fermé, j'irai au café.
S'il pleut, j'irai dans un café.
Present condition, future result
For these open future conditions, use si + present, then the future for the planned result: est (is), then irai (will go). English also uses the present in if the park is closed, even when talking about tomorrow. Do not use sera (will be) after si for this condition. This is a rule about conditional si, not every meaning of si.
In Si tu es en retard, je t'attendrai, tu es en retard means you are late; je t'attendrai means I'll wait for you. Tu and t' address one familiar person. Attendrai is the future of attendre, to wait. The condition can also come last: J'irai au café si le parc est fermé. The tenses keep the same jobs; you have not changed the plan.
Si le parc est fermé, j'irai au café.
Si le parc est fermé, j'irai au café.
- informal
Si tu es en retard, je t'attendrai.
J'irai au café si le parc est fermé.
An instruction when the condition applies
Now you are advising a visitor you address as vous. Keep the condition in the present, but replace j'irai (I'll go) with allez (go). Allez is the vous imperative of aller, with no subject vous expressed. Si le parc est fermé, allez au café means If the park is closed, go to the café. S'il pleut gives another possible reason to use the same backup.
The future tells the listener what the speaker plans to do; the imperative tells the listener what to do. Vous can also address several people. Here we practise its polite singular use; do not change the condition to a future tense just because the instruction concerns tomorrow.
Si le parc est fermé, allez au café.
- formal
Si le parc est fermé, allez au café.
- formal
S'il pleut, allez au café.
Recognize a different kind of possibility
The speaker in this example does not have a car and imagines having one: If I had a car, I could drive you to the station. Voiture means car, gare means station and t'emmener means take you there. This is a different situation from an open question about tomorrow's weather. For now, recognize that avais and pourrais belong to that imagined alternative. You do not need to build this structure or learn its conjugation here.
- informal
Si j'avais une voiture, je pourrais t'emmener à la gare.
Give your plan, then advise a visitor
Use the park and the café already identified together. First, you speak about your own plan for tomorrow: say “If the park is closed, I'll go to the café.” Next, you speak to one visitor using vous: tell them “If it rains, go to the café.” Neither problem has happened yet.
Try both before reading the answers below. Check est or pleut in the condition; choose irai for your plan and allez for the visitor's instruction. Listen and repeat. Then put the condition at the end of your first sentence, keeping the same meaning.
Si le parc est fermé, j'irai au café.
- formal
S'il pleut, allez au café.
One condition, two useful responses
For the realistic future possibilities practised here: si + present names the condition; the future gives your planned result, and the imperative gives an instruction. S'il pleut keeps pleut in the present. A condition may come before or after the result. You can now prepare a short backup plan for an outing without claiming that the problem will happen.