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Unit 9: Project management
The third conditional

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Session 2

Learn about the conditional we use for imagined past events. Do lots of exercises to practise this useful form. If I'd won the lottery, I'd have…

Sessions in this unit

1234

Session 2 score

0 / 14

  • 0 / 8
    Activity 1
  • 0 / 6
    Activity 2
  • 0 / 0
    Activity 3
  1. Activity 1
  2. Activity 2
  3. Activity 3

Activity 1

If I'd known…

Imagined past events

If I'd won the lottery, I'd have moved to a beautiful Mediterranean island.

But you didn't win. So you're still in the same place. As you can see, in the sentence above, we're talking about something that didn't happen. It only happens in your imagination. It's an imagined past event. And it's in the third conditional.

We're going to do two activities. The first will test you on the meaning of third conditional. The second will look at form in more detail.

Read the text and complete the activity

Form

Take a look at the first sentence again:

If I'd won the lottery, I'd have moved to a beautiful Mediterranean island.

The first part is the if part of the sentence. It didn't actually happen in real life.

If I'd won the lottery, I'd have moved to a beautiful Mediterranean island.

The second part is the main or result part of the sentence. Did it happen in real life? No, because it could only happen if the if part happened.

We make the third conditional with if + past perfect, and would have + past participle.

If I’d known it was your birthday … (This is the imaginary situation in the past.) I’d have bought you a present. (This is the imaginary result of the situation in the past.)

But look at this:

If I'd known Marta was ill, I would have gone to see her.

In this one, was Marta ill? Yes, she was. But the speaker didn't know that. The if part talks about knowing Marta was ill, not about whether Marta was ill or not.

The two parts can come in any order. When we write, we put a comma between the if part and the main part. You don’t use a comma when the main part comes first.

To do

Before we look at form in more detail, let's do an activity to test your understanding of third conditional sentences. Read the sentences and answer the questions about them. The sentences are all in the positive.

Check the meaning

8 Questions

Read the sentences and answer the questions about them to check your understanding.

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Next

So far, we've looked at the meaning of the third conditional in positive sentences. Next we'll look at the form of negative sentences and questions, and then do another activity to test you.

Session Grammar

    • Third conditional - Meaning and use

      The third conditional is used to talk about imagined situations in the past, things that didn't happen.

      • If I’d known it was your birthday, I’d have bought you a present.

      Form

      Sentences have an if part and a main/result part.We make the third conditional with if + past perfect, and would have + past participle:

      • If I’d known it was your birthday… (if part)
      • I’d have bought you a present. (main part)

      They can also come the other way round:

      • I'd have bought you a present if I'd known it was your birthday.

      Positive

      • If you’d asked me to marry you, I’d have said no.
      • We’d have been in trouble if we’d missed the last train.

      Negative

      • She wouldn’t have become ill if she’d taken the medicine.
      • It would have been better if they hadn’t come to the party.
      • If you hadn’t been so friendly, I wouldn’t have talked to you.

      Question

      • What would they have done if they’d lost their jobs?
      • If I’d told him the truth, how would he have felt?
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