Hey there! This is TOP episode 52: Mixed Conditionals 3+2.
My name’s Ola and I am an English teacher. My goal is to help you start speaking English with confidence and get rid of speaking barriers. It’s time you started speaking English fearlessly! Go to my website for full transcripts and worksheets to each episode. Happy learning!
Hello, welcome to today’s episode. Thank you for tuning in! This is the final episode on conditionals. Please please make sure you’ve listened to other episodes on this podcast about them. There are all conditional sentence types covered, please find the links in the show notes at teacherola.com/52. It’s necessary for you to understand them fully, use confidently. Today we’re mixing things up, so… It’s going to get messy.
Today we’re going to talk about type 3 and type 2 in one sentence. It worth knowing, it’s common an there will be one more episode on conditionals, the final one: type 2 plus type 1.
Ok, let’s do this. How to mix the third conditional with the second conditional and why?
Let us begin with why. As always in a conditional sentence, we have a condition clause and a result clause. In this mix we’re figuring out today it’s all about the past condition with a result in present time. Once again. So, we have a past condition, for example: If I hadn’t visited her last week. This is a past situation and it’s unreal. It ever happened. I had visited her. This part comes from the third conditional. I had visited her, but I’m speculating about the opposite situation. What if I hadn’t visited her? Ok, for the result clause now. The main clause. The result is present. It’s real. I wouldn’t know the latest gossip. I know the latest gossip now. This result comes from the second conditional. So we learn what would happen now if something had happened in the past. Let’s break down the structure once again. We have a condition and we have a result. The condition is unreal and belongs to the past which cannot be changed. The result is now. Listen to the whole sentence.
If I hadn’t visited her, I wouldn’t know the latest gossip.
This is why you have to embrace this mix. In order to explain your present situation with a condition from the past.
Generally, we speak about what would happen now if something had happened in the past. Let’s practice now. Listen and repeat:
If I hadn’t visited her, I wouldn’t know the latest gossip.
If I had married him, I would be miserable now.
If she had married a billionaire, she would be rich now.
Well done. I hope it’s crystal clear to you now. Don’t forget that in conditional sentences you can change the order of the phrases and the result clause may come first. Just keep in mind that the condition must be put in past perfect: If she had been, If I had gon, If they had known, and so on. The result clause is now. It consists of would plus the infinitive. I would smoke cigarettes, She wouldn’t be happy, they would live in a different city. In the result clause, we talk about the imaginary but present result. Ok. Let’s see some more examples. Please repeat, shall we?
If she had gone on that boat trip, she wouldn’t be here now.
We know she didn’t go on that boat trip, and we know she is here now. But what if? What if she had gone on that boat trip? Well, she wouldn’t be here now.
I would rent bikes in Holand if I had moved there.
I wouldn’t read that book If you hadn’t told me about that author.
She would be happier now If she hadn’t lived with her parents for so long.
If you had studied something else you would have a better job.
If I had had a dog when I was little, I wouldn’t be scared of dogs now.
Had had really exists! It’s not something you can only see in a coursebook. In real life, it is used. Nothing fancy about that. The thing is, it’s usually contracted. So it’s not clearly enunciated. What you might her is:
If I’d had a dog when I was little, I wouldn’t be scared of dogs now.
More examples:
If she’d had a sister when she was a child, she would have better contact with her mum.
If they’d had kids when they were younger, they wouldn’t be so lonely now.
Here you have it! Thanks a bunch for being here with me till the end of this episode. Let me know what you think! Go to teacherola.com/52 and leave a comment! Make one sentence in this pattern. MIx those conditionals. Tell me what would happen now if you had been raised in the USA. Finish this sentence, ok? I’ll do it too. If I had been raised in the USA, I would have perfect American pronunciation. Ha! Your turn. Finish this sentence: If I had been raised in the USA…
Download the worksheet. If you want to make sure this mixed conditional is clear for you now, you need to test yourself. Do the exercise and let me know what’s your score.
If you find this episode useful tell your friends about me. And in the next episode, we’ll be focusing on pronunciation. Subscribe to my podcast if you haven’t yet.
Thank you for listening and till next time! Happy learning. Bye!