MIXED CONDITIONALS - English Grammar Lesson - Mixed Verb Tenses in If-Clauses - Advanced Grammar

168,826 views ・ 2017-05-11

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Hello and welcome back.
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This lesson is all about mixed
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conditionals.
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It comes from a request by three viewers –
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Przemek, Nihar (from Odisha, India) and Olivia Ornelas.
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Before we start, if you want to request a lesson, just
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leave a comment.
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In your comment, tell me your name
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and I will mention you in the video.
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Alright, so in this lesson, I will teach you about mixed
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conditionals in both real and unreal situations (unreal
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means imaginary).
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There are exercises in this lesson for
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you to understand and practice.
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OK first, let’s start with the most basic
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type of conditional – the real conditional.
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Take a look at this example: “If it rains on Saturday,
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we’ll cancel the picnic.”
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So what do you understand by
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that?
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Well, you know that there’s a picnic planned for
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Saturday, and if it rains, we cannot go on the picnic, so
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we’ll cancel it.
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This is the most common type of conditional: on the
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condition side – we call it a condition clause, you have
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‘if’ plus the subject plus the verb in the present
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simple tense.
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So, you have ‘if’ and ‘it rains’ which is
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present simple.
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On the result side (in the result clause),
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you have ‘subject’ plus ‘will’.
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So – ‘we’ll cancel’ (or we will cancel) ‘the
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picnic.’
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This is called a real conditional.
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It’s also called the first conditional
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but the number is not important – what’s important
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is that it talks about a real situation – a situation that
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is possible.
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So about mixed conditionals?
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Well, the term ‘mixed’ just means that a sentence is in a
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different form – not the usual form.
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So, you could say “If it rains on Saturday,
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we’ll have to cancel the picnic.”
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(so instead of will plus the main verb, here you
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have ‘will have to’) or you could say “If it rains on
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Saturday, could you bring some umbrellas?”
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or maybe I just saw the weather forecast
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on the news and I say “How are we going to have a picnic
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if it rains on Saturday?”
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These are all correct, and they’re some examples of
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mixed real conditionals.
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Remember: we say that they’re mixed because they’re not in
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the common form.
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OK, let’s do a small exercise with this.
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Here are some sentences.
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But I’ve jumbled them up.
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Stop the video, try to put them in the right
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order, then play the video again and check.
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Alright, number one is “If you don’t
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mind, could you speak a little more slowly, please?”
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Number two is “If Rob wants to get into a top university,
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he needs to work harder.”
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And number three is “When you
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leave the house, remember to lock the front door.”
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In conditional sentences, it’s
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always OK to put the if- clause last – if you did
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that, no problem.
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OK, notice, in number three – you have ‘when’ instead of
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‘if’.
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The difference is that ‘if’ means something may
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happen or it may not happen – so “If you leave the house,”
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would mean you may or may not leave the house.
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But ‘when’ expresses the idea that you
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are going to leave the house (I’m sure), and when you
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leave the house, remember to lock the front door.
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So you can see here that these are
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all mixed real conditionals – they all talk about real
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situations but they’re in different forms.
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Let’s now move on and talk about unreal conditionals.
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What do I mean by unreal?
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Unreal refers to situations that are imaginary.
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Take these two sentences: “If I
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win the lottery, I will quit my job.”
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and “If I won the lottery, I would quit my
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job.”
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You will recognize the first sentence as a real
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conditional.
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So imagine that I have bought a lottery
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ticket.
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And the results are coming out tomorrow, so I
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have my fingers crossed, I hope I win.
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And if I win, I’ll go into my boss’s office
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and say “I quit”.
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So you have ‘if’ and present simple in
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the condition, and ‘will’ in the result.
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But number two is different.
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It’s an unreal or an imaginary situation.
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You have ‘If’ plus the past tense (“I
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won the lottery”) in the condition and ‘would’ instead
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of ‘will’ in the result.
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So it means I have no lottery
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ticket, but I’m dreaming.
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I’m saying “I hate my job.
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If I won the lottery someday, I
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would quit.”
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This type of sentence is called the second
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conditional – it talks about an imaginary situation in the
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future (like in this sentence) or in the present –
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for example “If I weren’t so busy, I would take a
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vacation.”
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So it means “I cannot take a vacation
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because I am very busy.”
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Notice that we use ‘were’ in the second conditional – if
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the verb is ‘be’ in the condition clause, we change
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it to ‘were’ and not ‘was’.
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That’s just a special grammar rule with the second
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conditional.
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You can also talk about the past using unreal
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conditionals.
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Remember my lottery ticket?
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Let’s say I bought a ticket but I didn’t
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win.
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So I might say “Oh!
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If I had won the lottery, I would
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have quit my job.”
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That means I bought a ticket, and when
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the results came out, I didn’t get it.
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So I’m dreaming but about the past
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this time.
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Or in this next example – “If Ramya had told
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me it was her birthday today, I would have bought her a
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present.”
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What does that mean?
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It means it’s Ramya’s birthday today but she did
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not tell me and I didn’t know; so I didn’t buy her a
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birthday present.
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But thinking back to the past I
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can say “If she had told me, then I would have got her a
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present.”
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This is called the third conditional – it is an unreal
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conditional that talks about the past.
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You make it with ‘If’ plus the past perfect
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tense (using had + the verb in past participle form) in
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the condition, and ‘would have’ in the result.
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OK, now that you know these, let’s talk about mixed unreal
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conditionals now.
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I have some sentences on the screen.
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The conditions are all in place,
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but the results are all mixed up.
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Stop the video, match the conditions to the results and
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then play the video and check.
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Alright, number one is “If Rob had worked harder in
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school, he could have gotten into a top university.”
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This is a third conditional,
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meaning it’s an unreal conditional that talks about
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the past.
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But notice that instead of ‘would’ we have
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‘could’.
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You can also use might here – you can say “he
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might have gotten into a top university’.
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Number two is “If I had won the lottery, I would be
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sitting on a beach in Hawaii right now.”
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Here, you see that we have a past
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condition, “If I had won the lottery, say, yesterday”, and
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then we have a present result – “I would be sitting on a
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beach in Hawaii right now.”
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This means I didn’t win the lottery so I’m not at a
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beach.
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So you see that it starts like a third
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conditional – past condition, but then the result part is
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like a second conditional – present result.
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Number three is similar – “If Renée hadn’t yelled at her
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boss, she would still have a job.”
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So Renée yelled at her boss and she got fired.
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So she doesn’t have a job now.
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Again, you have a past condition and a present
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result.
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Number four is “If Arjun were a smart investor, he wouldn’t
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have bought those worthless shares.”
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Notice here that the condition is in the present –
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so it says that Arjun is not a smart investor.
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And the result talks about something
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he did in the past – he bought worthless shares.
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Why did he buy them?
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Because he’s just not smart.
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Sentence number five is similar – “If I didn’t have
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so much homework, I wouldn’t have stayed home.
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I would’ve gone to the movies with all
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my friends.”
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So it means I have a lot of homework, so
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because of that I was not able to go to the movies –
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all my friends went, but I had to stay home and do my
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homework.
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And finally number six is “If I hadn’t lost my passport, I
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would be going to the conference in Vienna next
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week.”
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So I lost my passport – that happened in the past.
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And the result is in the future – I cannot go to
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Vienna next week.
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So these are the most common types of mixed unreal
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conditionals.
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There are some other combinations but
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they’re not so common – the ones that you see on the
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screen are the most important.
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Alright, to close this lesson, I want to give you
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some quick advice on learning and using conditionals.
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Don’t focus so much on the words
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first, second, third and mixed.
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They’re useful but you need to be paying attention
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to real and unreal.
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If you’re talking about a real situation in the present
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or future, use: If plus the present simple tense in the
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condition.
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In the result, you can have ‘will’ or you can
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have other words such as ‘could’, ‘can’, ‘might’, or a
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question.
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If you’re talking about an unreal or imaginary
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situation, think about the condition first.
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Is it present or future?
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Then use the past simple tense.
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If the condition talks about
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something in the past, then use the past perfect tense.
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Then, think about the result.
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If the result is in the present or future, use
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‘would’.
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If the result is in the past, use ‘would have’.
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Alright, that brings us to the end of this lesson.
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I hope you enjoyed it.
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I will see you in the next lesson
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soon.
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