Conditional for unconfirmed information: present, past and source

You already know two uses of the conditional: the hypothesis — “je viendrais si j'avais le temps” — and politeness — “je voudrais un café”. There is a third, and it does not follow from the other two.

In the press, putting the verb in the conditional means “apparently” or “according to sources we have not verified”. “Le président serait malade” is not saying the president would be ill under some circumstance: it is saying that he is reported to be ill and that the paper is not vouching for it.

For a past event the compound conditional is used: “le suspect aurait quitté le pays”, “il y aurait eu trois blessés”. This is what you will see in headlines on day one of any incident, before anything is confirmed.

And it is a way of writing, not an ornament. A French journalist who wrote “le président est malade” without having confirmed it would be asserting something he cannot stand behind; with the conditional he reports it and separates himself from it at the same time. That is why it appears so often: it is a precision tool.

When reading, the conditional form is a cue, not an automatic interpretation: context decides among hypothesis, politeness and reporting distance. In writing, markers such as “selon la police” or “d’après le journal” attribute the source and make that distance explicit.