Breakdown of S'il avait gardé son bouclier, il serait encore invincible aujourd'hui.
être
to be
il
he
avoir
to have
son
his/her/its (son, sa, ses)
aujourd'hui
today
garder
to keep
si
if
encore
still, again
le bouclier
the shield
invincible
invincible
Questions & Answers about S'il avait gardé son bouclier, il serait encore invincible aujourd'hui.
Why do we use the present conditional (serait) when the first half of the sentence is in the past (avait gardé)?
This is a "mixed conditional" sentence. The condition is a past event that didn't happen, so we use the plus-que-parfait (s'il avait gardé). However, the hypothetical result is happening right now, as shown by the word aujourd'hui (today). Because the result affects the present, we use the present conditional (il serait) instead of the past conditional (il aurait été).
Our current lesson is about quand bien même. How would this sentence change if we used it to say "Even if he had kept his shield..."?
You would write: Quand bien même il aurait gardé son bouclier, il serait encore invincible aujourd'hui. This is a highly important contrast! While si is followed by an indicative tense (like the plus-que-parfait), quand bien même is followed directly by the conditional. To express a past condition with it, you use the conditionnel passé (aurait gardé).
Could encore mean "again" instead of "still" in this sentence?
Out of context, encore is versatile and can mean "still", "again", or "yet". However, in this specific sentence, "again" wouldn't make sense alongside a continuous state like being invincible. The addition of aujourd'hui (today) further cements that this describes a continuing state lasting from the past into the present, so it translates strictly to "still".
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