What is the conditional and how do we conjugate it?

The conditional is a useful tense, used to express things that could/would/should happen. They are commonly followed by an 'if', for example:

I would go to the supermarket if I had some money - J'irais au supermarche si j'avais de l'argent.

Another example:

I would like a croissant - Je voudrais un croissant.

To conjugate this tense, you will need the future stem of the verb and then the passe 'imparfait' endings.

The future stem is simple - you normally use the infinitive of the verb, or a future stem if the verb i irregular.

Manger (to eat) = Manger- is the stem. However there are many irregular stems to be learnt, for example:

(English verb - Infinitive - Stem) / To go - Aller - Ir- / / To be - Etre - ser- / / To have - Avoir - aur- /
/ To make - Faire - fer- / / To know - Savoir - saur- /

Then we take our imperfect endings: Je - ais ~ Tu - ais ~ Il/elle/on - ait ~ Nous - ions ~ Vous - iez ~ Ils/elles - aient ~

. So,for 'I would have' - we take Je + the avoir stem 'aur' + imperfect ending 'ais'.

Voila - J'aurais (Not Je aurais, Je always becomes J' in front of a vowel).

For 'could' we take the conditional of the verb 'to be able to' = 'pouvoir' =>

The future stem is pourr- =>

I could eat - Je pourrais manger.

For 'should' we take the future stem of 'To have to'= devoir' .
Future Stem is devr- =>

I should eat =>

Je devrais manger.

I would eat =>

Je mangerais.

Hope this helps!