What does these sentences mean?

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on May 2, 2014 at 12:55pm

I don't  quite understand your question. Did you copy these sentences from somewhere or did you  compose them yourself ?

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There are  a few mistakes in the French  and so it is a matter of guesswork  to know what they actually mean in English. 

In most of those sentences  I would have probably  used "Si je gagnais.... " or "Si j'avais gagné ....."

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Permalink Reply by Jacques Fabre on May 2, 2014 at 2:42pm

None of these sentences really "sound" very correct, owing (namely) to wrong use of French rules of sequence of tenses.

You wrote : Si j'ai gagné à la loterie mes parents d'achèterait une nouvelle voiture pour nous.

The use of  "Si j'ai gagné..." (French passé composé : compound past, used as English preterit) in the conditional clause  leads to use the future in the main clause :

"Si j'ai gagné à la loterie, mes parents nous achèteront une voiture neuve". (If I [happen to have] hit a prize at the lottery, then my parents would (shall) buy us a new car.

The general rule is :

Where the verb in the conditional clause is in the imparfait, the verb in main clause is in the conditionnel présent :

- Si je chantais (imparfait) plus fort, tu m'entendrais (conditionnel présent)

Where the verb in the conditional clause is in the plus- que-parfait, the verb in the main clause is in the conditionnel passé (1ère forme) :

- Si j'avais chanté (plus-que-parfait) plus fort, tu m'aurais entendu (conditionnel passé lère forme)

Where the verb in the conditional clause is in the future, the verb in the main clause is in the  présent, or in the passé composé :

- Si je gagne (si j'ai gagné) à la loterie, mes parents nous achèteront une voiture neuve.

(Note : "d'achèterait " is definitily wrong, because the pronoun object for "nous" is "nous", and the verb should be in the plural, because the subject is "mes parents", plural) - "Nouvelle" is not correct if you mean "a new car", whereas "nouvelle" would mean "one more"

But the way to express various nuances may result in a variety of sentences :

Ex. Si je gagne à la loterie, mes parents achèteront une maison plus vaste et confortable pour nous tous.

(Here, it is implied that you actually bought a ticket, and say what your parents will do if you would hit a prize)

Si je gagnais à la loterie, mes parents achèteraient une maison...

(Here, it is a general, hypothetic statement of what your parents would do if you would happen to hit a prize, but not necessarily that you have actually  bought a ticket).

 

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