THIRD CONDITIONAL

28 April 2020

Dear students

Good evening.

Have you attempted the mini quiz posted yesterday?

Here are the answers:

1. little real possibility

2. were

3. asked

Hope almost all of you must have scored 100%

Today I am happy to post a lesson on ‘third conditional.’

Learn the lesson well and try to answer the mini quiz.

You will get the correct answers in the next posting.

Third Conditional

for no possibility

If I had won the lottery, I would have bought a car.

The first conditional and second conditionals talk about the future. With the third conditional we talk about the past. We talk about a condition in the past that did not happen. That is why there is no possibility for this condition. The third conditional is also like a dream, but with no possibility of the dream coming true

Last week you bought a lottery ticket. But you did not win. :-(

if	condition	result
	Past Perfect	would have + past participle
If	I had won the lottery,	I would have bought a car.

Notice that we are thinking about an impossible past condition. You did not win the lottery. So the condition was not true, and that particular condition can never be true because it is finished. We use the Past Perfect tense to talk about the impossible past condition. We use would have + past participle to talk about the impossible past result. The important thing about the third conditional is that both the condition and result are impossible now.

if	condition	result
	Past Perfect	would have + past participle
If	I had seen Mary,	I would have told her.
If	Tara had been free yesterday,	I would have invited her.
If	they had not passed their exam,	their teacher would have been sad.
If	it had rained yesterday,	would you have stayed at home?
If	it had rained yesterday,	what would you have done?
If	You had played well,	You would have won the match
If	You had studied well,	You would have passed the examination

result	if	condition
would have + past participle		Past Perfect
I  would have told Mary	if	I had seen her.
I would have invited Tara	if	she had been free yesterday.
Their teacher would have been sad	if	they had not passed their exam.
Would you have stayed at home	if	it had rained yesterday?
What would you have done	if	it had rained yesterday?
You would have won the match	if	You had played well.
You would have passed the examination	if	You had studied well.

Sometimes, we use should have, could have, might have instead of would have, for example: If you had bought a lottery ticket, you might have won

Mini Quiz

1. The third conditional is used when both the condition and result are

            no longer possible

            still possible

            always true

2. "If we _______ free, we would have gone with you." Which is correct?

            Were

            Are

            had been

. "If you'd studied harder, you _______ failed." Which creates a third conditional sentence that makes sense?

            Would

            would have

            wouldn't have