A Video Summary About the Conditional in English
A few explanations about the Conditional
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
A Video Summary About the Second Conditional
What Is A Second Conditional Sentence?
The second conditional is unreal or hypothetical. The condition and result are linked,
one cannot occur without the other.
Construction of the Second Conditional in English
The second conditional uses the past simple after if, then ‘would’ and the
infinitive:
We use it to talk about events in the future, which we think are very unlikely to happen.
e.g. If I won the lottery, I would buy a house (I believe it is very unlikely that I will win
the lottery)
We use it to talk about events in the present, which we feel are either impossible or not real.
e.g. If I had his number, I would call him (This is impossible because I don’t have his
number)
In conditional sentences, the order of the clauses is not fixed. You may have to rearrange the pronouns and adjust punctuation when you change the order of the clauses, but the meaning is the same.
● If it rained, you would get wet.
● You would get wet if it rained.
● If you went to bed earlier you wouldn’t be so tired.
● You wouldn’t be so tired if you went to bed earlier.
More Examples:
If I ruled the world!
“If I ruled the world, every day would be the first day of spring
If I ruled the world, every man would be as free as a bird,
If I ruled the world every man would say the world was his friend”
This song was originally from the 1963 London West End musical Pickwick.
If you ruled the world – what would you do?
Changing the Order
In conditional sentences, the order of the clauses is not fixed. You may have to rearrange the pronouns and adjust punctuation when you change the order of the clauses, but the meaning is the same.
If it rained, you would get wet.
OR
You would get wet if it rained.
If you went to bed earlier, you wouldn’t be so tired.
OR
You wouldn’t be so tired if you went to bed earlier.
Negative Sentences and the Conditional
When we use the negative of the past simple tense, we need to use the auxiliary verb ‘did’ + not.
When we use the negative of would, we add not.
Here’s what it looks like when constructing the second conditional:
POSITIVE: If Sarah had a good job, she would live in her dream house.
NEGATIVE: If Sarah didn’t have a good job, she wouldn’t live in her dream house.
POSITIVE, NEGATIVE: If I lived in the city, I wouldn’t have to take the bus.
NEGATIVE, POSITIVE: If I didn’t live in the city, I would have to take the bus.
Exercises About The conditional
Exercise 1: Imagine a future without work, the possibilities would be endless!
Exercise 2: Complete these sentences using the verb in brackets
Exercise 3: There are one or two verb mistakes in each sentence, see if you can find them and put them in the correct tense.
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