Les Verbes De Modalité Flashcards
Devoir in the present tense
To owe
e.g. je dois dix francs à Jean - I owe John ten francs
Devoir + infinitive
Must/to have to
e.g. je dois travailler - I must work / elle a dû travailler - she had to work
Devoir in the imperfect/present tense
To be supposed to / To be scheduled to
e.g. il devait partir lundi - he was supposed to leave on Monday / elle doit partir demain - she is supposed to leave tomorrow
Devoir in the present, perfect, imperfect or pluperfect (i.e. a variety of tenses)
Expresses probability i.e. must be
e.g. le film doit/a dû/devait être bon - the film must be/must have been/was probably good
Devoir in the present and past conditional tense
Expresses advice or reproach
e.g. vous devriez/auriez dû travailler - you should (have) / ought to (have) work(ed)
Pouvoir in any tense
To be able to / can / could
e. g. je peux le faire maintenant - I can do it now
e. g. j’ai pu m’échapper - I was able to escape (used for a single event)
e. g. je pouvais vous aider tous les vendredis - I was able to help you every Friday (used for past tense things that were repeated)
e. g. je pourrais vous aider - I could help you (conditional translates to ‘could/would be able to’)
Pouvoir in the conditional perfect tense
Could have / Would have been able to
e.g. elle aurait pu le faire - she could have done it/would have been able to do it
Verb and tense to use if ‘can’ means ‘have a skill’
Savoir in any tense
‘It’s possible that…’
Il se peut que + subjunctive
‘Cannot possibly be the case that…’
Ne pas pouvoir + infinitive
e.g. tu ne peux pas avoir encore faim - you can’t possibly still be hungry
Vouloir in the present, imperfect and conditional tense
To want/would like in conditional
e. g. je veux/voulais le voir - I want/wanted to see him
e. g. je voudrais du beurre - I would like some butter
Vouloir in the perfect tense
Tried/refused if negative
e. g. j’ai voulu le faire - I tried to do it
e. g. je n’ai pas voulu le faire - I refused to do it
How to express wanting something with different subjects
Vouloir que + subjunctive
e.g. je veux que tu partes - I want you to leave
Vouloir + bien in the present and perfect conditional tense
Polite wishfulness
e. g. je voudrais bien partir - I would really like to leave
e. g. j’aurais bien voulu vous accompagner - I wold have really liked to go with you
Vouloir + bien in the present and imperfect tense
To be prepared or willing to do something
e. g. je veux bien aider - I am willing to help
e. g. il voulait bien nous aider avec nos devoirs - he was prepared to help us with our homework
