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Why is this word so confusing in French ?
The reason is quite simple, the French mainly have two ways of expressing it while in Engish there is only one way (= could).
- Sometimes when using « could » we refer to an action in the past.
Ex : When I was young, I could …
Here we refer to something we could do, were able to do, were allowed to do
- Sometimes we refer to an action in the futur.
Ex : Tomorrow I could …
Here refer to what we consider could happen (futur)
To express « Could » in the past tense, French people use the « imparfait » version of the verb « pouvoir ». While to express « could » in the futur tense, they use the « conditionnel » version of the verb « pouvoir ».
Ils/elles pouvaient
| COULD (passé) Imparfait |
COULD (notion de futur) Conditionnel |
||
| Je pouvais | + (any infinitive verb)
courir 10 km parler espagnol faire la cuisine comprendre le chinois |
Je pourrais
Tu pourrais Il/elle pourrait Nous pourrions Vous pourriez Ils/elles pourraient |
+ (any infinitive verb)
courir parler espagnol faire la cuisine comprendre le chinois |
| Tu pouvais | |||
| Il/elle/on pouvait | |||
| Nous pouvions | |||
| Vous pouviez | |||
| Examples
Quand j’étais petit je pouvais sortir le soir jusqu’à 18h. Quand on était en vacances, on pouvait se coucher après 23h. (an authorisation) Quand il était jeune, il pouvait jouer de la guitare. (à capacity of doing something)
|
Exemples
On pourrait aller au cinéma ce week end. (à a suggestion)
Je pourrais acheter un grand chalet si j’étais millionnaire. (à world of fantasy) |
||
The structure is EXACTLY the same as with « CAN » so :
- we need to verbs
- the first verb gets changed
- the first verb gets the negation (if needed)
- the second verb is not changed (infinitive)
à In a negative sentence :
| COULD (passé)
Imparfait |
COULD (futur)
Conditionnel |
| Je ne pouvais pas jouer dehors
On ne pouvait pas regarder la télé
|
Je ne pourrais pas acheter de chalet
Elle ne pourrait plus dormir
|
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