Breakdown of Ils auraient étudié la médecine par vocation.
ils
they (masculine/mixed)
avoir
to have
étudier
to study
par
by, through / out of (motive)
la médecine
the medicine (field of study)
la vocation
the vocation
Questions & Answers about Ils auraient étudié la médecine par vocation.
How do we form the past conditional in Ils auraient étudié?
The past conditional is a compound tense. You form it by taking the conditional present of the auxiliary verb (in this case, avoir, which becomes auraient for ils) and adding the past participle of the main verb (étudié).
Why is there a la before médecine? The English translation doesn't say "the medicine".
Why use par in par vocation instead of another word like comme (as)?
While the English translation says "as a vocation", the French preposition par is frequently used to express a motive, reason, or driving force. In this context, it means they studied it "out of a calling" or "motivated by vocation".
If the subject was feminine, like Elles, would étudié need an extra "e" for agreement?
No, it would remain exactly the same: Elles auraient étudié. Because the auxiliary verb is avoir, the past participle étudié does not agree with the subject. Agreement with avoir only happens if a direct object comes before the verb, which is not the case in this sentence.
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