Breakdown of Si tu trouvais une base inconnue dans le système solaire, que ferais-tu ?
une
a / an (feminine)
tu
you (informal singular)
dans
in, inside
faire
to do, to make
Questions & Answers about Si tu trouvais une base inconnue dans le système solaire, que ferais-tu ?
Why is trouvais in the imperfect tense if this sentence is about a hypothetical future event?
In French, just like in English, we use a past tense to talk about an unlikely or imaginary present or future. In this second conditional structure, the formula is always si + imperfect tense, followed by the conditional tense in the main clause. So, Si tu trouvais... (If you found...) sets up the imaginary scenario, which pairs with the conditional que ferais-tu ? (what would you do?).
How is the conditional verb ferais formed here?
Ferais is the conditional form of faire (to do / to make) for the subject tu. To form the conditional, we usually take the full infinitive of a verb and add the imperfect endings. However, faire is irregular and uses the special stem fer-. Adding the tu ending (-ais) gives us ferais.
Could I say qu'est-ce que tu ferais instead of que ferais-tu?
Why does inconnue come after the noun, and why does it end in an extra e?