Second and Third Conditionals

Dive deeper into the world of conditional sentences with our latest tutorial on second and third conditionals! 📝 Unlock the power of expressing hypothetical situations and unreal past events with ease. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to refine your language skills, this video offers a step-by-step breakdown of these advanced grammar concepts. Explore how to form and use second and third conditionals effectively in both spoken and written English. Don’t miss this opportunity to enhance your understanding of English grammar—hit play now and take your language proficiency to the next level! 🚀

Grammar

Practice how to use second and third conditionals.

Transcript

Watch Our Video!

Introduction:

Host: Hello and welcome to the English Magnet. Today’s video: Second & Third Conditionals Made Easy! We’ve previously covered the zero and first conditionals in this video, which deals with real or likely situations in the present or future. Now, we’re going to focus on ‘if statements’ dealing with hypothetical situations. It’s a must watch to sound like a native speaker. Also, be sure to watch until the end to learn about the most common mistakes. Alright, let’s jump right into it!

Part 1: Conditionals Second and Third

Let’s quickly recap what conditionals are. They’re sentences with two parts: the “if” clause or the condition and the main clause AKA the result or outcome. Remember that they express a cause-and-effect relationship. In this video, we’ll focus on the last two types which encompass very unlikely or impossible conditions. 

Part 2: Second Conditional

So, the second conditional is a sentence structure used to talk about unreal situations in the present or future. It is often used to express imaginary scenarios and their outcomes such as dreams, wishes, and situations that are not currently true. Its structure follows the pattern: if + past simple (for the condition), and would + base form of the verb (for the result or outcome).

For instance: 

If I had more time, I would travel around the world.

If she knew the answer, she would tell us.

Just like other conditionals, it’s ok to change the order of the condition and the outcome. Oddly enough, the use of the past simple in the condition doesn’t imply an action taking place in the past, but rather an unreal or hypothetical situation in the present or future. It’s puzzling, but you have to take our word for it. On the bright side, a little bonus is that with the verb ‘to be’; for I, he, she & it you can use either ‘was’ or ‘were’, ‘were’ being more formal while ‘was’ is still widely used in spoken English. So, you can use ‘were’ for any subject pronoun. For example: If I was rich, I would buy a ticket to outer space. If I were rich, I would buy a ticket to outer space. Furthermore, apart from ‘was/were’, all verbs use the same form for all subject pronouns (I / you / he / she / it / we / they + had / saw / talked / knew / came / did) in the condition and (subject pronouns + would have / see / talk / know / come / do) in the result as well. This makes it pretty easy to memorize. Finally, in the outcome, ‘would’ can be contracted into ‘d when preceded by a subject pronoun (I would = I’d) unless it’s the negative form where ‘not’ is between would and the base form (would + not + base form). If you wish to use a contraction, it’s going to be ‘wouldn’t + base form’. And remember that the negative past simple form is ‘did not + base form’ when the condition is a negative. 

For example: 

If I had more time, I wouldn’t travel around the world. (would not travel) 

If she didn’t know the answer, she would tell us. (did not know) 

Part 3: Third Conditional 

Now, the third, and last conditional is used to talk about situations in the past that didn’t happen, it’s a common way of stating a regret. So the condition states something that has zero chance of happening (until we invent the time machine) and consequently the result is fabricated and imagined. Its structure is (graph: if+ past perfect (had + past participle), would + have + past participle).

For example: 

• If they had studied harder, they would have passed the exam. (in reality they failed)
• If it had not rained, we would have gone to the beach. (in reality it rained)
• If she had known about the traffic, she would not have been late. (in reality she didn’t know)

Yes, switching the condition and the result is totally fine. A quick tip: review the past participles as they are used in both the condition and the result. If you’re dealing with a regular verb, you’re golden; it’s the ‘ed’ form (except for show, showed, shown) and for irregular verbs, hit the books and study the third form of verbs  (do, did, done / throw, threw, thrown / come, came, come). You might hear and see a lot of ‘I’d, you’d, he’d, she’d and so on, just be careful since here both ‘had’ and ‘would’ can be contracted; right after if it’s (If I had = If I’d) and before have it’s (I would have = I’d have) (the same applies to all subject pronouns). It’s also ok to contract ‘would and have’ to make ‘would’ve’. And finally, the negative particle ‘not’ is always found after ‘had’ or ‘would’ and can be contracted, like in the following: 

• If they’d studied harder, they’d have passed the exam.
• If it hadn’t rained, we would’ve gone to the beach.
• If she’d known about the traffic, she wouldn’t have been late.

Part 4: Common Mistakes

Ok, now let’s go over two common mistakes that even native speakers struggle with; watch out for the following: 

First: Some people confuse the contraction ‘would’ve’ with ‘would of’ which is just not a thing even though the contraction does sound like these two words. Anyhow, when you hear ‘I would of been…’, it’s actually the contraction (I would have been =  I would’ve been).

Second: Don’t follow ‘if’ with ‘would’, in a conditional that’s never right. ‘If I would’ is just not grammatically correct in a conditional statement. This mistake is very common in the second conditional, just make sure you don’t have two ‘woulds’ in your statement. ‘If I would be rich, I would buy a new car.’ ought to be ‘If I were rich (or was), I would buy a new car’ (there’s only one ‘would’). 

Wrap up:

• Host: Hopefully, this has been helpful. We’re sad to see you go. Surely, if you had more time, you’d watch another video 😉  or you’d click on the link to access some free grammar activities directly related to this topic. Keep practicing, and you’ll get the hang of it. Thank you for watching. Until next time!