Word
Si vous étiez ambitieux, vous auriez accepté ce rôle.
Meaning
If you were ambitious, you would have accepted this role.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Si vous étiez ambitieux, vous auriez accepté ce rôle.
être
to be
vous
you (plural/formal)
avoir
to have
ce
this (before a noun)
Questions & Answers about Si vous étiez ambitieux, vous auriez accepté ce rôle.
Why do we use the imperfect tense (étiez) in the first half, but the past conditional (auriez accepté) in the second half?
This is a mixed conditional. It links a present state to a past result. Because being ambitious is an ongoing personality trait (present condition), we use the imperfect étiez after si. But the opportunity to accept the role has already passed, so we use the past conditional auriez accepté for the result.
If I am using the formal 'vous' to speak to a woman, how does the word 'ambitieux' change?
It changes to ambitieuse. Even though vous is the pronoun, adjectives must still agree in gender and number with the actual person you are addressing. If you were speaking to a group of men, it would stay ambitieux since adjectives ending in -x do not change in the masculine plural.
Are there any mandatory liaisons in this sentence?
Does 'rôle' only refer to acting, or can it mean a job position like in English?