The 3rd conditional: What is it? How to use it! - English In A Minute
139,529 views ・ 2019-07-01
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Welcome to BBC Learning English.
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I'm Sam and today we're talking about
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the third conditional.
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The third conditional is a little strange
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because we're talking about something that
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didn't happen in the past.
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Why would we do that?
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Well, because sometimes we want to imagine
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a different outcome.
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A friend of mine came to visit me yesterday.
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It was a surprise, so when I opened my front door, I said:
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"If I'd known you were coming,
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I would have baked a cake!"
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Did I know she was coming? No.
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Did I bake a cake? No.
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So I'm imagining a different result.
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Because we're talking about an imaginary past,
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we use:
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If + the subject + the past perfect,
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the subject + would have + past participle
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And you can also swap those round:
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What would you have done
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if you'd known your friend was coming?
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