Question on "would" from a past perspective

BillC1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Question on "would" from a past perspective

I am wondering how to form a statement using would (le conditionnel?) from a past perspective.  As in "I spent a lot of time deciding what I would eat for lunch today".  Could someone tell me if the below is correct?  Apologies for the spelling/accent errors as I am typing on a computer where i don't know how to type those, but i've tried to approximate the critical ones below.

j'ai passe' beaucoup de temps `a decider quoi je mangerais pour dejeuner aujourd'hui.

Or

maybe i should say "quoi j'allais manger pour..."?

Merci d'avance.

Asked 5 years ago
CécileKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Hi Bill

It should be :

"J'ai passé beaucoup de temps à décider ce que je mangerais pour le déjeuner aujourd'hui" if you want to use the conditional ...

Hope this helps!

BillC1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Fantastique !  Merci.  
BillC1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
serait-il aussi correct de dire: j'ai passé beaucoup de temps à decider quoi j'aillais manger pour le déjeuner?
BillC1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
oops.. j'allais..
BillC1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
oops, décider... lol
CécileKwiziq team member

Hi Bill,

It would be also:

...ce que j'allais manger ...

Here is the lesson to explain 'ce que' -

https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/grammar/ce-que-what-which-relative-pronouns

Here are a few examples of where you might find 'quoi' used -

Quoi? Quest-ce-que tu as dit? What ? What did you say?

On y va ou quoi? = Are we going or not?

Il n'y a pas de quoi dont' mention it 

Hope this helps!

BillC1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Merci.  Is there a lesson that lays out all the scenarios where quoi is appropriate?  it appears to be only appropriate in a very limited range of scenarios and typically at the end of the sentence.  Bonne journée ! 
NevilleB1Kwiziq community member

An alternative construction question... 

How about the below construction? Acceptable in spoken but perhaps not written French? Or, perhaps too creative?

Instead of:  

"J'ai passé beaucoup de temps à décider ce que je mangerais pour le déjeuner aujourd'hui"

can I say: 

"J'ai passé beaucoup de temps à décider quoi manger pour le déjeuner aujourd'hui"

CécileKwiziq team member

Hi Neville,

'Quoi manger' is perfectly acceptable ...

Quoi faire , quoi prendre etc...

Question on "would" from a past perspective

I am wondering how to form a statement using would (le conditionnel?) from a past perspective.  As in "I spent a lot of time deciding what I would eat for lunch today".  Could someone tell me if the below is correct?  Apologies for the spelling/accent errors as I am typing on a computer where i don't know how to type those, but i've tried to approximate the critical ones below.

j'ai passe' beaucoup de temps `a decider quoi je mangerais pour dejeuner aujourd'hui.

Or

maybe i should say "quoi j'allais manger pour..."?

Merci d'avance.

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