"IF I WERE" | How To Use SECOND CONDITIONAL | English Speaking | Learn English | Go Natural English

Hello and welcome to go natural English

I'm your American English teacher Gabby and today we are going to clarify

demystify even master one of the most difficult

confusing frustrating English tenses

that is these seconds conditional grammar tense in English for many of you you might feel like

Avoiding this tense because it can be quite confusing

We use it in many different ways. But today I'm going to show you with a quick and clear explanation

How to form the second conditional grammar tense how to use it and when to use it because we do use it in several different

situations it's like a

Multi-use tool to express yourself in English

I'm also going to share several examples that will help you to show you how we use it and at the end

of this episode

I am going to share a resource that will help you to greatly improve your English fluency

So if that sounds good, then let's begin

Now I'm also going to ask you to answer some questions to leave a comment on

This video with your own examples and answers to my questions. Ok. Here we go

so the second conditional is formed like other conditionals we start with if

Then we have the simple past tense. That's the first part of the sentence

The second conditional has a second part which is would plus the infinitive form of the verb

But remember after would we do not need to include the two before the verb?

So it's really just a base verb after would

Let me share the three ways that we use the second conditional and then show you some examples first

We use the second conditional to talk about in

probability future

Improbability we often use this to talk about situations related to money

for example, if

I had a lot of money I would

Travel all the time

That's an example of a future

improbability in this example

I don't believe that I will have a lot of money. So it's improbable. Maybe it's possible

But not probable

there's maybe a

1% chance that I believe that I will have a lot of money and so it's quite

Doubtful that I will actually experience this lifestyle where I would travel every single day another example

if I

Won the lottery I would

buy a mansion

Again, this is an example of an improbable future where I don't really believe that I'm going to win the lottery

But it's not

Completely impossible. I mean it would be nice right, but maybe I have a

1% chance of winning the lottery. It's not probable. Ok, so I want to invite you to share your own

Example to practice because the way to fluency is through using English

so let's practice if you're watching here on YouTube leave a comment with your own example of

improbable future situation so you can even start with the same way that I did like if I won the lottery

Or if I had a lot of money or if I had a million dollars

What would you do the second way that we use the second conditional is to talk about present

impossibility

Something that is not possible in the present moments. So let me share an example to clear this up

if I knew

Your birthday I would

Send you a birthday present

So, I don't know your birthday and therefore I can't send you a birthday present

If I knew your birthday, I would

And you a birthday present?

So it's presently impossible for me to send you a birthday present because I don't know your birthday

But I'm saying I'm expressing that perhaps I would like to send you a birthday present

If I knew your birthday, so tell me in the comments

When is your birthday? I would love to know and

Extra points for anyone who has the same birthday as I do

February 24

Now we've come to the third use of the second conditional now

This is my favorite use of the second conditional because it's to share your opinion to give

Suggestions and perhaps to persuade people so this is fun. We use it

Often by starting with if I were you

I'm sure you've heard this before if I were you I

would

Let's fill in the blank with an example

If I were you

I would leave a comment sharing your example here on the YouTube video or I

would leave a

comment on the go natural English blog post at gonaturalenglish.com

2nd - conditional if I were you I would study harder if I were you I would practice

More English if I were you, well, I'll let you fill in the blank

Tell me what you would do if you were me

now, of course we can use other kinds of

examples to share our opinion we could say for example if I

were

Your age I would

You might hear older people using this talking about someone. Who's younger

So for example if I were a teenager or if I were a college student

I would study

computer science

Absolutely without a doubt it is true. So

these are three ways that you can use the second conditional again to express an improbable future an

impossible

presence or a

suggestion to express your opinion

so

I hope that this helped to demystify the second conditional tense and to help you to express yourself more in English

Now I want to share a free resource with you to help you to improve your English fluency and your confidence

Faster, you can get a free sample of my popular audio ebook the English fluency

formula by visiting gonaturalenglish.com

slash free in the next lesson

We are going to explore the third conditional tense the final conditional tense in the English language

We have four of them

If you didn't catch me explaining the zero or the first conditional tenses

Make sure you check those out YouTube family

You can click right up there to check out the zero and the first conditional lessons right now

Next lesson we're going to dive into the third

Conditional I am so excited to help you out with these conditional tenses I get excited about

Explaining grammar because I know it's going to help you to be a more confident

Speaker of English you are doing a great job with your English Studies

Keep in mind that if you make mistakes, it's okay mistakes are part of learning and growing

So don't be afraid to get out there and start using the grammar that you're learning today

Even if you make a mistake that's part of it. So let's go. Let's try it out. Make sure to subscribe

to go natural English on the gue natural English YouTube channel or on the podcast if

You want to learn English? You don't want to miss a lesson. Click right down there to subscribe now

Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time. Bye for now