Requests and suggestions in French: voudrais, pourrait, devrais
You are choosing a place and a day for a meal with a friend. Use On pourrait… to offer an option, Je voudrais… to express a polite wish or request, and Tu devrais… to give advice. In these three patterns, the action that follows stays in the infinitive. Learn the three useful forms first; a complete conditional conjugation can wait.
Start with the intention
Wanting, being able and having to do something are different. Vouloir is wanting: Je veux… means ‘I want…’; Je voudrais… is a softer ‘I would like…’, already useful for ordering. Un café is ‘a coffee’ and s'il vous plaît is ‘please’. Aimer means ‘like’, so J'aime manger says you enjoy eating, rather than asking for a meal. Pouvoir expresses ability, permission or possibility: Je peux venir means ‘I can come’. Devoir can express an obligation: Je dois travailler means ‘I have to work’. The examples let you hear a request, a possibility and an obligation.
The words for this lesson are manger (eat), venir (come), travailler (work), ici (here), aujourd'hui (today) and demain (tomorrow). Je means ‘I’, tu is one person you address informally, and on often means ‘we’ in conversation, with a singular verb. Recall invitations such as Tu veux manger ? (‘Do you want to eat?’) and On va manger ? (‘Shall we eat?’), D'accord (‘All right’) to accept, and Désolé, je ne peux pas (‘Sorry, I can't’) to decline. Here ne…pas makes peux negative. A short refusal is enough; accept it without pressing.
- formal
Je voudrais un café, s'il vous plaît.
Je peux venir aujourd’hui.
Je dois travailler demain.
Offer an option: On pourrait…
On pourrait manger ici means ‘We could eat here’: it offers an option for the two of you, rather than announcing a settled plan. On pourrait venir demain proposes tomorrow for a visit. Pourrait is a form of pouvoir; with on, use pourrait in this pattern.
Keep manger or venir in the infinitive after pourrait: On pourrait manger, not On pourrait mange. English ‘could’ can also refer to past ability; these French examples make present or future suggestions. Neither one describes a past event.
On pourrait manger / venir …
On pourrait manger ici.
On pourrait venir demain.
Say what you would like: Je voudrais…
Je voudrais manger ici means ‘I'd like to eat here’. Je voudrais venir demain means ‘I'd like to come tomorrow’. This is the vouloir family: Je veux is direct; Je voudrais softens the wish or request. It can be used with a friend as well as when asking politely in a shop. It does not itself tell you whether to address someone as tu or vous.
Here, put the action directly after voudrais, in the infinitive: Je voudrais venir. Do not add a French equivalent of the ‘to’ in English ‘would like to come’. A noun is also possible, as in the earlier request Je voudrais un café, s'il vous plaît.
Je voudrais manger / venir …
Je voudrais manger ici.
Je voudrais venir demain.
Give friendly advice: Tu devrais…
Tu devrais manger ici means ‘You should eat here’: the speaker recommends the place. Tu devrais venir aujourd'hui recommends today. Devrais is a form of devoir. Compare an obligation, Je dois travailler (‘I have to work’), with advice, Tu devrais venir (‘You should come’). The people differ, but the contrast here is also between what is required and what the speaker recommends. Advice can be declined.
Tu addresses one person informally; these two lines fit that relationship. Keep the following action in the infinitive: devrais manger, devrais venir. In this lesson, devrais is advice about what to do, not a statement about the past.
Tu devrais manger / venir …
- informal
Tu devrais manger ici.
- informal
Tu devrais venir aujourd'hui.
Find a plan that works
Two friends are outside a café at lunchtime, deciding whether to eat there now or come back tomorrow. One suggests tomorrow; the other has to work tomorrow. The first then offers eating here, now, and the other accepts. Listen for the change from a possibility to an obligation and then to another suggestion. D'accord accepts the new option; it does not erase the work commitment.
- A
On pourrait venir demain.
- B
Je dois travailler demain.
- A
On pourrait manger ici.
- B
D'accord.
Your turn: choose the intention
Before reading the answers, say these three things in French: suggest eating here together; politely say you would like to come tomorrow; advise a friend you call tu to come today. Use manger, venir, ici, demain and aujourd'hui, all introduced above.
Check the three sentences in order, then listen and repeat. Change the intention first: a shared option starts with On pourrait, your wish with Je voudrais, advice to your friend with Tu devrais. Keep the action in the infinitive.
On pourrait manger ici.
Je voudrais venir demain.
- informal
Tu devrais venir aujourd'hui.
Three useful forms before a full conjugation
Vouloir → Je voudrais for a polite wish or request; pouvoir → On pourrait for a shared suggestion; devoir → Tu devrais for advice. In these patterns, add a familiar infinitive without conjugating it again. You can now propose something, state your preference and respond to a practical constraint.
For recognition only, listen to Si je pouvais, je viendrais: ‘If I could, I would come’. Si je pouvais gives an imagined condition; je viendrais gives the imagined result. This use goes beyond the three useful chunks. You do not need to build hypothetical sentences or learn every conditional person here. In particular, today's suggestions and requests do not need a si clause.
Si je pouvais, je viendrais.