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The Second Conditional

The second conditional uses "if + past simple" followed by "would + infinitive" to talk about unreal or improbable present or future situations. It can describe imagined dreams for the future that likely won't occur, or present situations that are impossible because the "if" clause is not true. The third conditional uses "if + past perfect" followed by "would have + past participle" to talk about situations in the past that did not happen and to imagine the resulting consequences.

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17 views

The Second Conditional

The second conditional uses "if + past simple" followed by "would + infinitive" to talk about unreal or improbable present or future situations. It can describe imagined dreams for the future that likely won't occur, or present situations that are impossible because the "if" clause is not true. The third conditional uses "if + past perfect" followed by "would have + past participle" to talk about situations in the past that did not happen and to imagine the resulting consequences.

Uploaded by

diana
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Second Conditional

The second conditional uses the past simple after if, then 'would' and the
infinitive:

 if + past simple, ...would + infinitive

(We can use 'were' instead of 'was' with 'I' and 'he/she/it'. This is mostly done in
formal writing).

It has two uses.

First, we can use it to talk about things in the future that are probably not going to
be true. Maybe I'm imagining some dream for example.

 If I won the lottery, I would buy a big house.(I probably won't win the lottery)
 If I met the Queen of England, I would say hello.
 She would travel all over the world if she were rich.
 She would pass the exam if she ever studied.(She never studies, so this won't
happen)

Second, we can use it to talk about something in the present which is impossible,
because it's not true. Is that clear? Have a look at the examples:

 If I had his number, I would call him. (I don't have his number now, so it's
impossible for me to call him).
 If I were you, I wouldn't go out with that man.

the Third Conditional


We make the third conditional by using the past perfect after 'if' and then 'would
have' and the past participle in the second part of the sentence:

 if + past perfect, ...would + have + past participle

It talks about the past. It's used to describe a situation that didn't happen, and to
imagine the result of this situation.

 If she had studied, she would have passed the exam (but, really we know she
didn't study and so she didn't pass)
 If I hadn't eaten so much, I wouldn't have felt sick (but I did eat a lot, and so I
did feel sick).
 If we had taken a taxi, we wouldn't have missed the plane
 She wouldn't have been tired if she had gone to bed earlier
 She would have become a teacher if she had gone to university
 He would have been on time for the interview if he had left the house at nine

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