L’expert examine la canalisation au cas où elle serait cassée.

to be

Breakdown of L’expert examine la canalisation au cas où elle serait cassée.

• au cas où: in case
• examiner: to examine
• cassé: broken

Questions & Answers about L’expert examine la canalisation au cas où elle serait cassée.

Why does the sentence use au cas où? What does it mean exactly?

Au cas où means in case.

It introduces a possible situation that the speaker wants to prepare for or check for. In this sentence, the expert is examining the pipe/system in case it might be broken.

A useful nuance:

• si = if
• au cas où = in case

So au cas où often suggests a precaution: someone is doing something now because a problem might exist.

Why is it serait and not est or soit?

After au cas où, standard French normally uses the conditional, not the indicative or subjunctive.

So:

• au cas où elle serait cassée = in case it were / might be broken

That is why you see serait, the present conditional of être.

This is a very common learner question because English does not have the same rule here. A native English speaker may expect something like est or even a subjunctive form, but French usually prefers the conditional after au cas où.

Is au cas où always followed by the conditional?

In careful standard French, yes, that is the usual rule.

Examples:

• Au cas où il pleuvrait, prends un parapluie.
• Au cas où elle serait absente, appelle-moi.

In everyday speech, you may sometimes hear other forms, but for correct written French and for learners, the safest rule is:

au cas où + conditional