the grammar

Question

i don't understand the translation. why is "she would read" translated to "elle lisait" and not "elle lirait"?

i thought that "would" is conditional verb in english so it should be translated too to conditionnel in french? need any explication

Accepted Answer

This is really a question on English grammar. 
‘ She would read …‘ is the past tense of ‘will’ in this case - and can be replaced by ‘ she used to read … ‘. 
Hence imparfait is indicated in French, not conditional mood.
Neither ‘would’ nor ‘could’ are just used in the conditional sense in English.
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/english-grammar-reference/will-would#:~:text=would%20is%20the%20past%20tense,hypotheses%20(when%20we%20imagine%20something)