Question 1

How do we form "should have" here, and why is it aurais dû?

Accepted Answer

This is the conditionnel passé (past conditional) of the verb devoir (to have to / must). In the present conditional, je devrais means "I should". To put it in the past ("I should have") to express a regret, you use the conditional form of the helper verb avoir (j'aurais) plus the past participle of devoir (dû).

Question 2

Where exactly does the negation ne ... pas go in the conditionnel passé?

Accepted Answer

Just like in the passé composé, the negation goes around the conjugated helping verb. Here, the helping verb is aurais, so the negative words wrap around it to make je n'aurais pas dû.

Question 3

Why is investir in the infinitive when the English translation says "invested"?

Accepted Answer

In French, when you have a conjugated form of devoir, the main action verb that follows always stays in the infinitive. So even though the helping verb is in a past tense, you keep the action as investir (to invest).

Question 4

Why does the past participle dû have a circumflex accent (^)?

Accepted Answer

The accent on dû is only there to tell it apart from the word du (meaning "some" or the combination of de + le). Note that if the participle needs to be feminine or plural, the accent disappears (for example, due or dus).

Question 5

Why use c'était instead of il était for "It was too risky"?

Accepted Answer

We use c'était (the imparfait or past continuous of c'est) because it describes a general situation or abstract idea—in this case, the whole concept of making that investment. Il était is usually reserved for describing specific nouns or telling the time.

C'était trop risqué, je n'aurais pas dû investir.

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