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Hey!

In the previous lessons we talked about the Zero, First and Second conditionals.

Today we’re gonna learn about the Third conditional.

It’s the last one!

So yay!

We use the third conditional to talk about ‘impossible’ conditions.

They are impossible because they happened in the past and we cannot change them.

If something had been different,

something else would have happened.

Let’s see some examples!

Bro!

What the hell are you wearing?

You’re going to a job interview!

I am?

If I had known, I would’ve brought my bat.

Your Bat?

Why?

Dude, it’s a job interview!

I have to convince them that I’m qualified!

I’ll be back a minute!

Wait, what?

He’s not gonna get the job…

In this case, James didn’t know about the interview

so he didn’t wear his formal clothes

and didn’t bring his bat!

He said:

If I had known, I would’ve brought my bat.

So the bit after “if” is different to what really happened?

Yes,

then the next clause is imagining the result in the past,

which didn’t happen, of course.

I wouldn’t have caught the virus if I hadn’t gone to that stupid party!

Ah, poor thing!

Yeah, we often use the third conditional to express regret.

Hey, we waited for you for like an hour.

Where were you?

Urgh I’d have been on time if he’d told me sooner.

I had to pick up a proper dress and do my makeup, in only what?

5 hours?

Yeah that’s tough…

You can use the third conditional to complain about something!

And yes,

when you’re using this type of conditional be careful with the contractions.

We use ‘d for would and had.

So this is the basic structure of the third conditional:

If + past perfect, would + have + past participle.

Can you use other modal verbs apart from would?

Yes, we can also use could, might or should.

If I had known you were going there, I could have gone with you.

If they’d told me, I might have been able to help.

You should have told Mary if you had seen Jack.

Well we’re done with the conditionals now.

Hope you’ve learned them all!

Now try making sentences with each conditional

and compare them with each other.

I’ll see you in another grammar lesson!

Bye!