English Conditionals: Second Conditional

Second Conditional: Imaginary Present or Unlikely Future

The Second Conditional can be used to talk about imaginary present situations, where we are imagining something different from what is really the case. We can also use it to talk about things in the future that are unlikely to happen, as the condition is unlikely to be met. We use the past tense in the condition part and would for the result.

IF	Condition	Time	Result	Possibility
	past simple	present	WOULD + base verb	impossible
If	I had the time,		I would learn Italian.	I don't have the time, so I'm not going to learn Italian.
	past simple	future	WOULD + base verb	unlikely
If	I won the lottery		I would travel around the world.	There's a very small chance of winning the lottery, so the trip is unlikely

We can use other modal verbs in the past tense in the result part of the sentence:

IF	Condition	Result	Certainty
	past simple	WOULD + base verb
If	I hadthe time,	I would learn Italian.	Although unlikely to happen, the speaker is sure that they would do it given the opportunity.
If	I had more time,	I might learn Spanish.	Although unlikely to happen, it is only a possibility anyway.
If	I had more time,	I should learn some more about IT.	Although unlikely to happen, the speaker is saying that it would be a good idea, but is not committed to it.
If	I had more time	I could learn Hindi.	Although unlikely to happen, it is only a possibility anyway.

With the verb to be, there are two forms that can be used with I, he, she & it:

IF	Condition	Result
I, he, she, it	Were
If	I wereyou,	I'd marry her.
I, he, she, it	Was
If	I was you,	I'd marry her.

English Conditionals: Third Conditional

Third Conditional: Imaginary Past

The third conditional is used when we are talking about the past and imagining something different from what actually happened:

	Condition	Result	What actually happened
	Past Perfect	WOULD HAVE + Past Participle
If	I had known,	I would have helped.	I didn't know and didn't help.

IF	Condition	Result	Certainty
	past perfect	WOULD HAVE+ past participle
If	I had known,	I would have helped.	Although this didn't happen, the speaker is sure about the result.
If	I had known,	I could have helped.	Although this didn't happen, the result is only a possibility.
If	I had known,	I might have helped.	Although this didn't happen, the result is only a possibility.
If	you had known,	you should have helped.	Although this didn't happen, it is only a good suggestion or piece of advice.

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