The 3rd conditional: What is it? How to use it! - English In A Minute
136,075 views ・ 2019-07-01
Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.
00:00
Welcome to BBC Learning English.
0
80
2100
00:02
I'm Sam and today we're talking about
1
2180
2480
00:04
the third conditional.
2
4660
2160
00:06
The third conditional is a little strange
3
6820
2560
00:09
because we're talking about something that
4
9380
1810
00:11
didn't happen in the past.
5
11190
3010
00:14
Why would we do that?
6
14200
1840
00:16
Well, because sometimes we want to imagine
7
16040
2640
00:18
a different outcome.
8
18680
1660
00:20
A friend of mine came to visit me yesterday.
9
20340
2880
00:23
It was a surprise, so when I opened my front door, I said:
10
23220
4360
00:27
"If I'd known you were coming,
11
27580
2040
00:29
I would have baked a cake!"
12
29620
1880
00:31
Did I know she was coming? No.
13
31500
2620
00:34
Did I bake a cake? No.
14
34120
2720
00:36
So I'm imagining a different result.
15
36840
2520
00:39
Because we're talking about an imaginary past,
16
39360
2980
00:42
we use:
17
42340
680
00:43
If + the subject + the past perfect,
18
43020
3900
00:46
the subject + would have + past participle
19
46920
4620
00:51
And you can also swap those round:
20
51540
2860
00:54
What would you have done
21
54400
1340
00:55
if you'd known your friend was coming?
22
55740
1640
New videos
Original video on YouTube.com
About this website
This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.