Nouvelles:

Bienvenue sur le Forum ! Retournez à AnglaisPod.com ?

Menu principal

pourrais/pouvais

Démarré par mamour, 18 Avr 2009 13:17

« précédent - suivant »

mamour

 why "pourrais" and pouvais are translated by "could"  :-[
Make the most of yourself,for that is all there is of you.

Thomas

Unfortunately, "can" is one of those irregular verbs that has very strange forms. The past tense and the conditional are both "could," so it is sometimes difficult to know which one is which. Here are some examples of "could"...

We could go to the movies if we had more money.
On pourrait aller au ciné si on avait plus d'argent.
(uses "pourrait" because it is a hypothetical situation, so conditional tense)

She could speak German when she was young, but she has forgotten it now.
Elle pouvait parler allemand quand elle était jeune, mais elle l'a oublié maintenant.
(uses "pouvait" because it is describing a past event, so past tense)

Here is one tip to help you tell them apart: if you can replace the word "could" with "was/were able to,", then it is the past tense (pouvais). If you can replace it with "would be able to," then it is the conditional tense (pourrais). Looking at those same examples...

We could go to the movies if we had more money.
We would be able to go to the movies if we had more money.
"would be able to" is conditional, and so in French, it uses pourrait

She could speak German when she was young, but she has forgotten it now.
She was able to speak German when she was young, but she has forgotten it now.
"was able to" is past tense, and so in French, it uses pouvait

Hope that helps! :)
Hello, and welcome to Apprendre l'anglais.
Bonjour, et bienvenue à Apprendre l'anglais.