Word
Je ne ferais pas de journalisme si je n'avais pas lu ce roman.
Meaning
I would not do journalism if I had not read this novel.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Je ne ferais pas de journalisme si je n'avais pas lu ce roman.
je
I
avoir
to have
ne
not (used before the verb)
pas
not (used after the verb)
Questions & Answers about Je ne ferais pas de journalisme si je n'avais pas lu ce roman.
Why does the first part of the sentence use the present conditional (ferais) when the second part is about the past (avais lu)?
This is a mixed conditional. It describes a past event that has an ongoing result in the present. The condition is in the past (si je n'avais pas lu, meaning "if I hadn't read it back then"), but the result is happening right now (je ne ferais pas, meaning "I wouldn't be working in journalism today").
Why is it pas de journalisme instead of pas du journalisme?
In an affirmative sentence, you would use the partitive article du (je fais du journalisme). However, when a sentence is negated with ne... pas, indefinite and partitive articles (un, une, des, du, de la) change to a simple de or d'.
Could I say je ne travaillerais pas dans le journalisme instead?
What tense is avais lu and why is it used here?