Sequence of tenses

In French, the sequence of tenses enforces us to have relevant tenses through one single sentence or even through one single paragraph / idea.

One common difficulty French learners struggle with is the si + pronoun + verb. (Honestly some Frenches struggle with it too).

First case : imperfect and present conditional

Here is an example:

Si je savais programmer, je gagnerais plus d’argent.

If I knew how to program, I would earn more money.

The struggle here is not towards understanding, but towards producing a correct sentence.

Here you have two verbs: savoir (which is conjugated to the imperfect) and gagner (which is conjugated to the present conditional).

This is the most common form of conditional speaking with si + pronoun + verb. Here, if the first verb is conjugated with the imperfect, the second verb absolutely must be conjugated with the present conditional. Always.

These are correct :

Si j’étais à Paris, j’irais voir mon cousin.

If I was in Paris, I would pay a visit to my cousin.

Si j’étais végétarien, je ne mangerais plus de viande.

If I was vegetarian, I would not eat any more meat.

That one are not correct (sometimes native speakers make this mistake, beware!):

Si j’aurais un ordinateur, je jouerais au Sims.

If I had a computer, I would play to the Sims.

Here, the verb savoir is conjugated to the present conditional, or this is wrong. It should have been conjugated with the imperfect, like this:

Si j’avais un ordinateur, je jouerais au Sims.

If I had a computer, I would play to the Sims.

Last but not least: this combination express a possibility in the past. The person who uses these tenses says he would like the situation to happen, but it would never happen (probably not).

If you want to talk about a situation that is likely to happen in the future, you must use present + simple future, like follow:

Second case: present of the indicative + future of the indicative

This case deals with conditional situations that are likely to happen (in the future). Example :

Si j’ai un enfant, il s’appellera Charles.

*If I have a kid, he will be named Charles.`

So here we have the verb avoir, which is conjugated to the present of the indicative, and the verb s’appeler which is conjugated to the future of the indicative.

Rule of thumb: always use the future tense after the present tense if you use this form of conditional speaking.

There is a last — but not least – form that you can use for things that, like, “just happened” and that you want to express kind of a regret of not having done something: using pluperfect and conditional first pass.

Third case : pluperfect and conditional first past

This case deals with situations where you want to express the regret of something not to have happened. Example:

Si j’avais su que tu étais sur Paris, je serais venu te voir.

If I had know that you were in Paris, I would have paid you a visit.

Here we are conjugating the verb savoir at the pluperfect, then the verb venir at the conditional first pass.

The speaker is clearly indicating that he/she regrets not having known the piece of information earlier (the fact that his/her friend was in Paris) at some point in the past, and what would happen if he/she only had known.

In a nutshell

Upon conditional cases like the ones we have covered above, the sequence of tenses states that:

if you use imperfect, then you must use conditional present (for something that would not likely happen);
if you use present of the indicative, then you must use **future of the indicative (for something that would likely happen, in the future);
if you use pluperfect then you must use the conditional first past (for something that happened at some point that you wish it happened differently).

Wish you all the best through learning French. Bon courage !