FlexiLingoIn one line
Put the auxiliary in the conditional and the participle after it — and its commonest meaning is regret: "I should have".
This is English "would have done", and the pieces line up exactly:
aurais= "would have",fait= "done".j'aurais faitis "I would have done".
The forms on this page
| Form | Means | Sound |
|---|---|---|
j'aurais fait | I would have done — mostly regret, something that never happened; but unconfirmed news uses it too | /ʒo.ʁɛ fɛ/ |
The table
With avoir | With être | |
|---|---|---|
je /ʒə/ | aurais fait /o.ʁɛ fɛ/ | serais allé(e) /sə.ʁɛ.z‿a.le/ |
tu /ty/ | aurais fait /o.ʁɛ fɛ/ | serais allé(e) /sə.ʁɛ.z‿a.le/ |
il /il/ | aurait fait /o.ʁɛ fɛ/ | serait allé /sə.ʁɛ.t‿a.le/ |
nous /nu/ | aurions fait /o.ʁjɔ̃ fɛ/ | serions allé(e)s /sə.ʁjɔ̃.z‿a.le/ |
vous /vu/ | auriez fait /o.ʁje fɛ/ | seriez allé(e)(s) /sə.ʁje.z‿a.le/ |
ils /il/ | auraient fait /o.ʁɛ fɛ/ | seraient allés /sə.ʁɛ.t‿a.le/ |
Four uses
1. Regret — "I wish I had"
| Pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|
J'aurais dû t'écouter. | I should have listened to you | /ʒo.ʁɛ dy te.ku.te/ |
Tu aurais pu me le dire. | you could have told me | /ty o.ʁɛ py mə lə diʁ/ |
J'aurais aimé venir. | I'd have liked to come | /ʒo.ʁɛ.z‿ɛ.me və.niʁ/ |
On aurait mieux fait de partir. | we'd have done better to leave | /ɔ̃.n‿o.ʁɛ mjø fɛ də paʁ.tiʁ/ |
j'aurais dûandtu aurais puare two very common spoken structures — one regret, one gentle reproach.These are English "should have" and "could have" exactly, including the tone:
Tu aurais pu me le direcarries the same mild accusation as "you could have told me".
2. The third conditional
A condition that can no longer be met, because it is in the past:
| Condition | Result |
|---|---|
Si j'avais su, | je serais venu. |
| pluperfect | past conditional |
Si tu m'avais appelé, je serais venu.— if you had called me, I'd have come
The three conditional types are detailed in si-hypothese.
3. Unconfirmed news — the language of journalism
| Pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|
Le président aurait démissionné. | the president has reportedly resigned | /lə pʁe.zi.dɑ̃ o.ʁɛ de.mi.sjɔ.ne/ |
Il y aurait eu dix blessés. | ten people are said to have been injured | /il i o.ʁɛ.t‿y di blɛ.se/ |
In news reporting, the conditional means "not yet confirmed". This use comes up in the reading section of exams.
English does this with a separate word — "reportedly", "allegedly", "is said to have". French does it with the tense alone, so nothing in the sentence flags it except the verb form. When you meet an unexpected conditional in a news text, this is almost always why.
The full picture — with the present conditional, the signals, and how to tell it from "if" — is in conditionnel-information.
4. The future in the past, completed
Il a dit qu'il aurait fini avant midi. | he said he would have finished by midday |
The detail is in concordance-des-temps.
aurais dû and its family
Three modal verbs in the past conditional produce three meanings:
| Structure | Meaning | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
j'aurais dû | I should have — regret | /ʒo.ʁɛ dy/ |
j'aurais pu | I could have — a missed opportunity | /ʒo.ʁɛ py/ |
j'aurais voulu | I would have liked — an unfulfilled wish | /ʒo.ʁɛ vu.ly/ |
| Pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|
J'aurais dû partir plus tôt. | I should have left earlier | /ʒo.ʁɛ dy paʁ.tiʁ ply to/ |
J'aurais pu partir plus tôt. | I could have left earlier | /ʒo.ʁɛ py paʁ.tiʁ ply to/ |
J'aurais voulu partir plus tôt. | I'd have liked to leave earlier | /ʒo.ʁɛ vu.ly paʁ.tiʁ ply to/ |
In a conditional sentence — what goes where
| Type | After si | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — real | present | future |
| 2 — hypothetical, present | imperfect | present conditional |
| 3 — hypothetical, past | pluperfect | past conditional |
The conditional never appears after a conditional
si. (Thesimeaning "whether" is the exception:Je ne sais pas s'il serait venu.— seequestion-indirecte.)❌
Si j'aurais su✅Si j'avais su
This is the most frequent error in French — including among French speakers.
Mixed combinations
The two halves can come from different times:
| Meaning | Pronunciation | |
|---|---|---|
Si j'avais étudié, je serais médecin. | if I had studied, I'd be a doctor now | /si ʒa.vɛ.z‿e.ty.dje ʒə sə.ʁɛ med.sɛ̃/ |
Si j'étais plus jeune, je serais parti. | if I were younger, I'd have gone | /si ʒe.tɛ ply ʒøn ʒə sə.ʁɛ paʁ.ti/ |
A past condition with a present result — and the reverse. Both are correct.
English mixes them the same way — "if I had studied, I'd be a doctor" — so this needs no adjustment.
Examples
| English | French | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| I should have listened to you. | J'aurais dû t'écouter. | /ʒo.ʁɛ dy te.ku.te/ |
| You could have said so. | Tu aurais pu le dire. | /ty o.ʁɛ py lə diʁ/ |
| If I had known, I'd have come. | Si j'avais su, je serais venu. | /si ʒa.vɛ sy ʒə sə.ʁɛ və.ny/ |
| I'd have liked to come. | J'aurais aimé venir. | /ʒo.ʁɛ.z‿ɛ.me və.niʁ/ |
| He has reportedly resigned. | Il aurait démissionné. | /i.l‿o.ʁɛ de.mi.sjɔ.ne/ |
| If you had called, I'd have come. | Si tu avais appelé, je serais venu. | /si ty a.vɛ.z‿a.pə.le ʒə sə.ʁɛ və.ny/ |
| We'd have done better to stay. | On aurait mieux fait de rester. | /ɔ̃.n‿o.ʁɛ mjø fɛ də ʁɛs.te/ |
| If I had studied, I'd be a doctor. | Si j'avais étudié, je serais médecin. | /si ʒa.vɛ.z‿e.ty.dje ʒə sə.ʁɛ med.sɛ̃/ |
| I'd never have thought it. | Je n'aurais jamais pensé. | /ʒə no.ʁɛ ʒa.mɛ pɑ̃.se/ |
| You should have said so sooner. | Tu aurais dû le dire plus tôt. | /ty o.ʁɛ dy lə diʁ ply to/ |
Common mistakes
| ❌ | ✅ | Why |
|---|---|---|
Si j'aurais su | Si j'avais su | No conditional after si |
j'aurais allé | je serais allé | aller takes être |
elle serait venu | elle serait venue | Agreement with the subject |
J'ai dû t'écouter for regret | J'aurais dû… | The passé composé means "I had to" |
Si tu serais venu | Si tu étais venu | The same rule |
Why si refuses the conditional
because `si` already builds the condition
In a conditional sentence the two halves do two different jobs:
| Half | Job | Tense |
|---|---|---|
si … | sets up the hypothesis | indicative, shifted back |
… | states the result | conditional |
The conditional marks the "result", not the "hypothesis". So it has no place in the si clause.
And the hypothesis is built by stepping one tense back:
| Reality | Hypothesis |
|---|---|
| present → | imperfect |
| past → | pluperfect |
English works identically: "If I had known, I would have come" — "would" only in the second half. And English speakers feel the same pull to break it, which is why "if I would have known" is a well-known error in English too.
So the danger here is not a foreign structure but a familiar bad habit. If you would not write "if I would have known" in English, you will not write si j'aurais su in French.
A mnemonic French speakers teach their own children:
"
sinever likes-rais."