Do these phrases have the same meaning? « je devrais allé » & « j’aurais du allé have the same meaning?

Candy G.C1Kwiziq community member

Do these phrases have the same meaning? « je devrais allé » & « j’aurais du allé have the same meaning?

Asked 5 years ago
CécileKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Hi Candy,

Je devrais aller = I should/ought to go ( conditional present)

J’aurais dû aller = I should have/ ought to have  gone ( conditional past)

CécileKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Hi Candy, 

Never ! 

The verb 'devoir' in the conditional  is always followed by a verb in the infinitive .....

Nous devrions parler .... Je devrais prendre ...., Ils devraient revenir ...etc

Candy G.C1Kwiziq community member

Thank you !

Candy G.C1Kwiziq community member

But does « je devrais allé ‘ (using past participle of aller) mean the same thing as « j’aurais dû aller » ?

CécileKwiziq team member

Hi Candy,

 Not at all!

Just as in English...

Je devrais aller = I should go , is describing an action in the future which could still happen.

J'aurais dû aller = I should have gone , is describing an action in the past which ought to have happened but didn't and it's too late.

Hope this helps!

Alan G.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Hi Cécile,

Candy is specifically asking about "je devrais allé". I know this just seems like a spelling error, and probably it is, but if you google this (and similar constructions like "je devrais acheté") you get a surprising number of results. Actually there are more results for "je devrais allé" (162) than for "je devrais aller" (61). (By the way, when doing a search like this on Google, the initial number of results is not correct, it's always too large. To get the correct number you need to page through the results until you get to the last one.)

Do you think this is a common spelling error in French, or is there some other reason?

Candy G.C1Kwiziq community member

Thank you, Alan! Nope, it’s not a spelling error. I just need a native speaker to tell me if “ je devrais allé” is ever acceptable because some online translation tools say yes. 

Candy

Alan G.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Hi Candy, I didn't mean that you had made a spelling error - obviously this is what you intended - but the hits on Google look like errors to me. (But maybe it's some dialect thing?) 

It's true that Google Translate, for example, will translate "Je devrais allé" as "I should have gone", but it will always attempt to give an answer, even if the input is incorrect. If you do the translation in the opposite direction it gives "j'aurais dû aller" instead.

Have you seen examples of "je devrais allé" in print? Or have you heard people saying this?

Candy G.C1Kwiziq community member

Merci beaucoup !!

Candy G.C1Kwiziq community member

I have heard someone say it, but it was not a native speaker. So I looked it up online and thought, hmmm, maybe ?  Thank you very much for your help and thank you Cécile !

CécileKwiziq team member

Maybe the confusion also comes from the fact that ‘allé ‘ and ‘aller’ sound the same?

Beware of Google translate as I often see errors on there...

CécileKwiziq team member

Maybe the confusion also comes from the fact that ‘allé ‘ and ‘aller’ sound the same?

Do these phrases have the same meaning? « je devrais allé » & « j’aurais du allé have the same meaning?

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