Effective and fun French si clauses practice

French si clauses are so tricky! If you want your students to really master them, you’ll need to find some fun and effective ways for students to practice. While students do love if-then activities, knowing whether to use le futur simple or le conditionnel can be tricky – especially if they are just learning both tenses for the first time!

What resources do I use to teach French si clauses?

I’ve found that even though using a well-structured worksheet for the French conditional is definitely important for helping students learn the structures, many students do even better when combined with this hands-on activity. It’s more fun, helps different learning styles, and is a nice break in the routine.

I like to use a mix of student worksheets for le conditionnel, the hands-on activity shown in this blog post, and these French si clauses writing prompts to make sure students are getting a lot of ways to practice.

Here’s how this French si clauses activity works:

To get started, print off as many copies as you’ll need for students to work in groups of two or three. You’ll cut out each sentence clause. Then, have students work in groups to match up the logical clauses.

All students will place the sentence clauses face up on their desks. They’ll match the correct si clause with its corresponding clause. You can easily walk the room and check their progress by using the original copy as your teacher key.

This activity contains a choice of printable sentence strips or the cards shown here. The clauses are the same, so it’s just a matter of preference for they style you prefer. I’ve found that the cards are great to laminate and use for years, plus they don’t fall off desks and get lost!

What do students practice?

Students will practice cause and effect using the simple future and the conditional. All of the sentences with French si clauses use either le futur simple or le conditionnel. Students will match the correct si clause to a second clause using the correct verb tense. The sentence clauses are a mix of the l’imparfait and le conditionnel or le présent and le futur simple.

To help students understand that the French si clauses can come at the beginning or end of the sentence, some sentences will start with the si clause and others will end with it.  The result clause is always underlined, so students will know to match two different types of clauses.

Find this French si clauses activity at my TpT store here.

Your students will love it, and it will really help them understand the structures:
si + imparfait –>  conditionnel  and si + présent –> futur simple.

Want to add even more challenge? I like to have them write their own si clauses as a follow-up homework assignment. Then, I can use those sentences as French bell-ringers, quiz questions, or another homework for those who need more practice! It helps me out and I can quickly and easily see if the students are able to use the si clauses on their own. It’s a win-win situation!

French teachers love this! Here’s what some teachers say:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  “Probably my favorite activity of yours…such great practice!” – Gabriela B.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Straight forward skill practice with a good variety of vocab.” – Lillian G.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “This was a good classroom “get up and move” activity.” – Janette J.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “So great and still challenging for my upper levels!” – Mme in Class

Find a full French unit for le conditionnel here.