lelivre.

[dense mantle]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[quaint pagoda]

*si je voulais

well pouvait is imparfait and pourrais is conditionnel

conditionnel almost always translates to "would", but here it's like "would be able to"

which can also be said with just "could"

what do you know about imparfait ?

[quaint hamlet]

The trouble here, I think, is that you're translating the words into English before understanding the underlying grammar of the two tenses.

If you just look at it as if "pouvoir" is the verb "can", then both of these end up being "could"

• Je pouvais → I could
• Je pourrais → I could

However, English is just being underspecified here because each of those "could"s actually has a different meaning. If you instead translate it into English using the verb "to be able to" the difference becomes much clearer

• Je pouvais → I was able to
• Je pourrais → I would be able to

At the end of the day, it's simply a matter of understanding the difference between imperfect and conditional and avoiding translating word for word into English when you're trying to understand it

[pseudo veldt]

Imperfect is often used for the past, right? I don't understand why its On povait le faire plus tard when that's a hypothese and future. 🤔

[quaint pagoda]

It's not future

"we could've done it later"

i.e. after the time that's being referred to

It implies that the action was done in the past but it didn't have to be