Word
Il est dix heures. S'ils avaient délibéré plus tôt, ils l'auraient condamné.
Meaning
It is ten o'clock. If they had deliberated earlier, they would have convicted him.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Il est dix heures. S'ils avaient délibéré plus tôt, ils l'auraient condamné.
être
to be
ils
they (masculine/mixed)
avoir
to have
dix
ten
Questions & Answers about Il est dix heures. S'ils avaient délibéré plus tôt, ils l'auraient condamné.
How do the verb tenses in the second sentence form the third conditional?
The third conditional talks about an unreal past situation. The condition clause uses Si + Plus-que-parfait (s'ils avaient délibéré - if they had deliberated). The imaginary result uses the Conditionnel passé (ils l'auraient condamné - they would have convicted him).
Why is the pronoun l' placed before auraient and not before condamné?
In French compound tenses, object pronouns like l' (meaning "him") must go directly in front of the auxiliary verb (auraient). You cannot put them between the auxiliary and the past participle.
Why does si become s' in S'ils? Does this happen before all vowels?