How to say "should" in French - and why you really shouldn't

Today we are speaking about “shoulding”. Because “shoulding” is one of our favourite activities. Seriously, how often do you say “should” in a day?

“I should be more productive, I should be speaking French better, I should do this, I should do that…”

Sometimes we “should” other people too, for example you really should watch this video until the end and you really should subscribe to my YouTube channel not to miss out on any weekly videos. Seriously we all should subscribe. And do all the other things.

In response to the current crisis, we often find ourselves shoulding even more than usual. Life is feeling extra hard right now and our go-to reaction is often to beat ourselves up even more, even though we know deep down that it doesn’t help at all.

And if you’re reading this years after its publication, I bet it is still relevant. It feels like the whole of humanity has been shoulding forever and will keep shoulding forever

In fact, should is such a frequent word, I’m sure you want to know how to say it in French.

Also, it’s really interesting because the word “devrait” which is ‘should’ in French is built in a way that can help you understand what it really means, and therefore feel better about it all.

My hope is that this article will make you understand what is behind the word “should” or “devrait” and help you be a bit easier on yourself as a result.

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This article should help you beat yourself up a little bit less.

Or at least it will give you something interesting to say at your next dinner. Or skype-meeting, in case you’re still in quarantine upon reading this.

Deal? Let’s look into it.

So maybe you already know that should is devrait. But do you know how this word is created?

To make “devrait”, you need two elements.

First you need the verb “devoir” which means must, have to.

And then you need a special conjugation for it, to change its meaning from “must” to “should”

English modals & French moods

In English, “should” is what’s called a modal verb.
There are other modal verbs such as must, may, might, can etc.
These are called modal verbs because they express a modality.
A modality is like a special flavour given to another verb, if you will.
For example, If you can do something, it’s not the same as if you must do it or if you should do it. This difference is called a modality.

In French we have no modal verbs, it’s just not a thing for us.

Instead, the way to express modality in French is through particular conjugations known as moods.

So to form ‘devrait’, which means ‘should’ we need to apply a particular mood to the verb ‘devoir’ meaning ‘must’. That particular mood is called “conditionnel” or “conditional” in English.

We use the conditional mood to express what would happen in different conditions.

So devoir, it its regular (i.e. indicatif) conjugation means “must”

But in conditionnel, it means “should”.

Je dois - I must

Je devrais - I should

Now let’s think for a moment about the implications of that.

Conditionnel is the mood we use to express what would happen in different conditions.

So whenever we say, “je devrais” or in English “I should”, we are basically saying that if the conditions were different, we would have to do that thing.

We acknowledge that the required conditions aren’t met, therefore the thing isn’t happening.. That particular thing would happen if the conditions were different.

So here’s my question: since we know deep down that the necessary conditions aren’t available. And therefore that’s the reason why we aren’t doing that particular thing - why do we beat ourselves up?

Wouldn’t you like to stop beating yourself up, and find a way to feel empowered to change the conditions instead?

Let me show you how you can make this shift.

By the way, if you like this way of explaining the French language and how to learn it, you will love the French Fluency Accelerator. It’s an online program that allows you to learn the French skills you need and to apply them in your real life, with me as your side kick, and a global community of English-speaking French learners. You can check it out here.

I’m not saying that you should check it out, because as we just saw, should means that you’d have to do it in different conditions.

So, instead, it’s just something that you can do, if you want. You can do it now. You can do it later. You might want to do it eventually.

Being mindful of the words we use

In general, I encourage you to be mindful of the words you use, and particularly of how often you use “should” or in French “devrait”.

Why do you think you should do something, since we now know that it would only happen if the conditions were different?

Using the word should can make us or others feel disempowered in the blink of an eye.

Maybe you’d like to use another word instead. Different words can make you feel completely different.

How about “I might do this”, or “I would like to do this” or even “I want to do this”.

Not “I should speak French better” but “I want to speak French better”. Not, “should I join this course?”, but “do I want to join this course?”

Can you feel how different these words feel?

Play around with the words.

See which ones make you feel more empowered, and then strive to use those more often.

You will be amazed at how different it makes you feel, and what kind of doors it can open for your life.

For example, one big area in which we say “should” a lot is around making mistakes. So many French learners feel that they should make less mistakes or even wish that they’d make no mistake ever, because mistakes are bad, aren’t they?

Well, I beg to differ. I think mistakes are terrific and if anything, you can be glad that you make some. Why? That’s what I explain in that article.

Your next steps

If you like this way of learning French, you will love to learn with me as a student or client. Please check out:

My 1-1 coaching program, The French Transformation, if you need to improve your French fast.
My group program, The French Fluency Accelerator, if you’d like to join a community of students from all over the world. We have weekly practice calls together and the best online video library to learn French.

Pro tip: you don’t need to choose!

All my 1-1 clients are invited to join the French Accelerator free of charge.

Feel free to book a call with me now to discuss options.

About the author

Angel Pretot is a French learning coach. He helps English speakers from all over the world learn French fast and become fluent. You can work with him one-on-one (online via skype or a similar software) or join a global community of French learners in his group program the French Fluency Accelerator.

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