Breakdown of J'aurais saisi l'opportunité.
je
I
avoir
to have
saisir
to seize
l'opportunité
the opportunity (f)
Questions & Answers about J'aurais saisi l'opportunité.
How do we know aurais saisi is the past conditional?
The past conditional is a compound tense. It is built by taking the auxiliary verb (in this case, avoir) and conjugating it in the present conditional to get j'aurais (I would have). Then, you add the past participle of your main verb, saisi (seized).
Why does saisir use avoir as its auxiliary verb here instead of être?
How do we form the past participle saisi?
Saisir is a regular -ir verb. To form the past participle of regular -ir verbs, you simply drop the -ir infinitive ending and replace it with -i.
Could the past participle saisi ever need an extra -e or -s at the end?
Not in this specific sentence. Because it uses the auxiliary avoir, the past participle doesn't agree with the subject. It would only change if the direct object came before the verb. For example, if you replaced l'opportunité with a pronoun to say 'I would have seized it', it would become Je l'aurais saisie, adding an -e because opportunité is feminine.
Learn J'aurais saisi l'opportunité and more in French
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free