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Le futur simple et le conditionnel — Higher Tier Weapons
🎯 Le futur simple et le conditionnel — Higher Tier Weapons
You can express the future with je vais + infinitif — and at Foundation, that is enough. But at Higher tier, the inflectional future (je mangerai) and the conditional (je mangerais) are your mark-band-5 structures. One letter separates them — -ai for certainty, -ais for "would". Master the irregular stems and the si + imperfect + conditional pattern, and you have the highest-value grammar structure on the AQA Higher paper.
Le futur simple — formation
Rule: infinitive + future endings. For -re verbs, drop the final e before adding endings.
Earn the mark scheme marks
💡 Exam Tips & Common Errors
- In the 150-word Higher writing task: use at least one inflectional future OR conditional to demonstrate AO2 grammatical range.
- One si + imperfect + conditional sentence = the single highest-value grammatical structure available at GCSE level — put one in every Higher writing task.
- Key distinction: je mangerai (I will eat — future certainty) vs je mangerais (I would eat — conditional). The -ais/-ait/-aient endings signal conditional.
- The si clause is always imperfect — never use a future tense after si in a conditional sentence.
- Regular -er and -ir verbs use the infinitive as the future/conditional stem — only -re verbs drop the final e.
❌ Common error: Si j'aurai de l'argent, j'achèterais une voiture. (future after si)
✓ Correct: Si j'avais de l'argent, j'achèterais une voiture.
Why it costs marks: The si clause in a hypothetical conditional structure ALWAYS uses the imperfect — never the future. Using the future after si is a serious grammatical error that suggests the student does not understand the conditional structure. This costs AO3 marks and undermines what would otherwise be an impressive high-level sentence.