Conditional

See Hypothetical Statements The evolution of the Conditional tense is similar to the development of the Future in that there was no Conditional in Latin and it came to be expressed from the combination of the infinitive + the verb HABERE.

The difference with the Conditional tense is that it took its form from the imperfect indicative of HABERE,. as its intial semantic connotation was one of "future in the past." There is a somewhat similar way to express this idea in English when one used indirect discourse in the following examples:
1. "I will come." Anne said.
2. Anne said she would come.
In sentence 2, the verb "said" is in the past, followed by the verb "would come" in the conditional, meaning at some point in the future with reference to the time expressed by "said."

The imperfect in Old French has slight differences compared to the imperfect in Modern French:

Imperfect Tense of HABERE

LATIN		Old French		Modern French
HABEBAM	HABEBAMUS	oie	iiens/-ï:ons	avais	avions
HABEBAS	HABEBATIS	oies	iiez/ïez	avais	aviez
HABEBAT	HABEBANT	oit	oient	avait	avont

This ending would be placed as a suffix on the regular infinitive, except in cases of sincopation in words such as pourrais and vendrais and note with the verb avoir:

avroie	avrïons
avroies	avrïez
avroit	avroient

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Hypothetical Statements

Introduced by Se

The use of the present in the protasis (IF-Clause), followed by the futre, imperative, or present in the apodosis (Result or Main Clause), indicates the indubitability of the statement: if he does no receive her love he will most assuredly be unfortunate. When there is some uncertainty concerning the relationship between the two clauses--that is, when the eventuality is doubtful or problematic--there are two ways of expressing the statement: Type A (see ll 82-84) and Type B (see ll 330-32).