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The Verb Devoir in the Conditional Tense by Bruce Sallee and David Hebert

The verb devoir takes on a unique meaning when used in the conditional tense. It is the equivalent of the English construction “should” or “ought to,” as in “I should go to the store.”

<tgroup cols="2"> <colspec colname="col1" colnum="1" colwidth="60%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <colspec colname="col2" colnum="2" colwidth="40%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <tbody> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>Je devrais lui passer un coup de fil</emphasis>.</p></td> <td><p>I should call him.</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>Il devrait travailler plus</emphasis>.</p></td> <td><p>He should work more.</p></td> </tr> </tbody> </tgroup> </table> <p>When placed in the conditional, therefore, <emphasis>devoir</emphasis> implies that there is some doubt as to whether the event will actually occur. It imports an obligation of an almost moral nature; quite often, there will be an unspoken “but,” implying that the event may, in fact, never take place at all. In some grammatical circles, using <emphasis>devoir</emphasis> in the conditional is known as the “tense of regret” for that very reason.</p> <p><emphasis>Devoir</emphasis> has an irregular future stem, so it uses <emphasis>devr-</emphasis> as the stem in the conditional. Remember not to confuse the conditional conjugation of <emphasis>devoir</emphasis> with the imperfect conjugation, because they each have completely different meanings. In the imperfect tense, <emphasis>devoir</emphasis> means “used to have to.” It still implies the obligation. Only when the statement is cast in the conditional does the necessary doubt enter the picture to trigger the same response as a “should” construction does in English.</p> <!--/gc--> <div id="pagination"><ul><li class="prev"><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/french/forming-the-conditional-tense/forming-the-past-conditional-tense.htm" title="Forming the Past Conditional Tense">Forming the Past Conditional Tense</a></li><li class="next"><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/french/forming-the-conditional-tense/activit-15.htm" title="Activité 15">Activité 15</a> </li></ul></div></div> <div id="coda"> <div id="rel"><div class="n5">Related Articles</div><ul> <li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/french/forming-the-conditional-tense/the-verb-devoir-in-the-conditional-tense.htm" zT="18/1YL/Zn"> The Verb Devoir in the Conditional Tense - French </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/brazilian-portuguese/verb-tenses-an-overview/imperfect-tense.htm" zT="18/1YL/Zn"> Imperfect Tense - 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href="http://www.netplaces.com/french/forming-the-conditional-tense/forming-the-past-conditional-tense.htm">Forming the Past Conditional Tense</a></li> <li class="btO">The Verb Devoir in the Conditional Tense</li> <li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/french/forming-the-conditional-tense/activit-15.htm">Activité 15</a></li> </ul></ul></div> </div> <script>if(zSbL<1)zSbL=3;zSB(2);zSbL=0</script> </div> <div id="widgets"><script type="text/javascript">if(z336>0){w('<div id="adB">'+ap[0]+at[4]+as[0]);adunit('','','about.com',ch,gs,336,280,'1','bb',3);w('</div>')}if(z155>0){w('<div id="adP">'+ap[0]+at[4]+as[0]);adunit('','','about.com',ch,gs,336,155,'1','ps',4);w('</div>')}</script> <div id="pg" class="pane"><div class="n3">Shopping</div><div class="cntnr"><a href="http://shop.everything.com/product/the-everything-learning-french-book-with-cd-2nd-edition/"><img src="http://0.tqn.com/d/np/french/Cover.jpg"></a><h4><a 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