French Level 3, Activity 10: Le conditionnel / The Conditional Tense (Face-to-Face)

Created Feb. 7, 2024 by Amber Hoye, Emily Blackburn, Camille Daw, Mimi Fahnstrom

Did you know that you can access the complete collection of Pathways Project French activities in our new Let’s Chat! French pressbook? View the book here: https://boisestate.pressbooks.pub/pathwaysfrench 

Please Note: Many of our activities were created by upper-division students at Boise State University and serve as a foundation that our community of practice can build upon and refine. While they are polished, we welcome and encourage collaboration from language instructors to help modify grammar, syntax, and content where needed. Kindly contact pathwaysproject@boisestate.edu with any suggestions and we will update the content in a timely manner. 

The Conditional Tense / Le conditionnel

Description

In this activity, students will say what they would do using the conditional tense in a variety of situations in a “choose your own adventure” style game. 

Semantic Topics

Conditional tense, le conditionnel, choices, les choix, situations, les situations

Products

Decisions

Practices

Making decisions, thinking about hypothetical situations

Perspectives

French students start making their future plans as young as before they enter high school! Thinking about hypothetical situations is very important to make such informed decisions so early.

NCSSFL-ACTFL World-Readiness Standards

  • Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations or correspondence in French to provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions.
  • Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret spoken and written French on a variety of topics
  • Standard 2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the cultures of the francophone world.
  • Standard 4.2: Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of francophone cultures and their own.

Idaho State Content Standards

  • COMM 1.1: Interact and negotiate meaning (spoken, signed, written conversation) to share information, reactions, feelings, and opinions
  • COMM 2.1: Understand, interpret, and analyze what is heard, read, or viewed on a variety of topics.
  • COMM 3.1: Present information, concepts, and ideas to inform, explain, persuade, and narrate on a variety of topics using appropriate media in the target language.

NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements

  • I can say what I would do in a given situation.
  • I can identify hypothetical statements in written text.
  • I can answer hypothetical questions.

Materials Needed

Warm-Up

1. Begin by introducing the Can-Dos for today's activity.

2. Review what the Conditional tense is and how it is formed.

3. Ask the students the following questions, and have them find the conditional. Then, ask them to respond to the first and last questions.

  • Si je pouvais, je visiterais le Louvre aujourd’hui. Est-ce que vous aimeriez le visiter aussi ? (If I could, I would visit the Louvre today. Would you like to visit this museum too?)
  • J’aurais pas voulu voler la Joconde--c’est illégale, et je voudrais tout simplement voir le tableau ! (I wouldn’t have wanted to steal the Mona Lisa-- it’s illegal, and I would simply like to see the painting!)
  • Vous seriez inspecteur si vous aviez l'opportunité ? (Would you be a detective if you had the opportunity?)

Main Activity

1. Go over the context for the mystery.
Les nouvelles sortent vite ! Tout le monde sait maintenant et tout le monde est en train de paniquer…La police de Paris vous a contacté pour que vous puissiez résoudre le cas ! (The news came out quickly! Everyone knows now and everyone is panicking...The Paris police have contacted you to help solve the case!)

2. Read each slide, being careful not to give the conjugations of the verbs away in the conditional.
Lisez chaque diapo, étant conscient de ne pas utiliser le conditionnel pour décrire les choix : c’est pour les étudiants à faire ! 

3. Before the students choose what they would like to do by putting the given verb into the conditional tense, give them the opportunity to find the verb that is already conjugated in the conditional in the text that you just read.

Avant qu’ils choisissent ce qu’ils veulent faire en mettant le verbe au conditionnel, donnez à vos étudiants l'opportunité de chercher le verbe conjugué au conditionnel qui est déjà sur le diapo dans le texte que vous venez de lire.

4. Allow the students to choose an option by putting the prompted word into the conditional tense, and click on the hyperlink that corresponds to the option.

Laissez les étudiants choisir une option en mettant le verbe donné au conditionnel. Puis, cliquez sur le lien qui correspond à l’option choisie.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until the end of the slide deck.

Répétez les 3eme et 4eme étapes jusqu'à la fin d'activité.

Wrap-Up

  1. Choose an art heist from francophone history to share:
    1. Vol à Montréal
    2. La vraie histoire du vol de la Joconde
    3. Tableaux impressionnistes volés 
  2. Ask students if they have any questions.

Avez-vous des questions ?

End of Activity

  • Can-Do statement check-in... “Where are we?”
  • Read can-do statements and have students evaluate their confidence.
  • Encourage students to be honest in their self evaluation
  • Pay attention, and try to use feedback for future activities!

NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements

  • I can say what I would do in a given situation.
  • I can identify hypothetical statements in written text.
  • I can answer hypothetical questions.
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