Second Conditional in English + Examples [English Grammar Lesson]

Hey, it's Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

This is exactly where you want to be every week to get the confidence you want

for your life and work in English.

If you think back on all your years of studying English,

and I know that you've been doing it for a long time,

you may have asked this question about conditionals.

Do I really need them? They're confusing.

They have strange grammar structures. Is it really necessary to learn them?

My students ask me those questions a lot.

The truth is you absolutely do want to learn how to

use conditionals correctly because we use them regularly in our

conversations. And that's the challenge.

How exactly do we use conditionals in conversation?

I know in grammar books and in many English classes,

you've learned to memorize the formula.

If plus past simple plus would plus infinitive,

you learn these kinds of mathematical equations in the language,

and those are important. You absolutely want to know the formula that we use,

or the general pattern for structuring those sentences.

But if you don't understand why you actually need them,

it's really hard to remember to use them.

And that's what we're going to focus on today. Several weeks ago,

I did a lesson on the zero and first conditional forms in English, again,

with the focus on how or why we use those conditional forms and

conversations. And today we're going to do the same with the second conditional.

We will do a little bit of review of that pattern or formula that

we follow.

But what I really want to focus on are the different ways that we use the

second conditional, for example,

did you know that we use this conditional forgiving advice,

imagining a different future outcome or an unlikely future

outcome, because we all like to dream about different future possibilities,

even if they're unlikely and we use the second conditional to express regret

or wishes for a different reality,

of course we can't change what is true right now,

but we can definitely wish that things were different throughout today's lesson.

I'm going to give you multiple examples so that you can get the repetition.

You need to get comfortable with that sentence structure or pattern

that we need to correctly formulate the second conditional.

And you're going to learn how to use it in your own conversations.

[Inaudible].

If you completed the lesson, I did a few weeks ago on the first conditional,

then, you know,

we use the first conditional in real situations with

a likely consequence or result. For example, in this sentence,

we will pay 3% more if you can complete this

project within a month. In that sentence,

I'm following the typical pattern for a first conditional sentence and by doing

so,

I indicate that it's likely that a company will be able to

complete a project within a month. And as a result,

they'll get paid 3% more. However,

if it is unlikely that the company will be able to complete a

project within a month,

then we would want to shift to the second conditional and our sentence would

become, we would pay 3% more if you could,

or if you would complete this project within a month.

By making that little shift in our grammar,

we're indicating that it's unlikely that a company would be able to meet

that deadline. In fact,

it's likely that they need more than a month to complete the project.

And as a result, they will not get that 3% increase in payments.

The change that we're making in the formula is we're shifting from the present

simple to the past simple and we're changing will to would.

By doing that,

we're changing our focus from something likely to something unlikely

or even impossible or unreal.

So let's look at some example sentences to illustrate all of

those different reasons for using the second conditional. And in each example,

sentence,

you'll see that I'm following the formula that we need for grammatical accuracy.

With each example,

I'm also going to ask you a question and pause for a moment so that you can

think about the sentence and what it is really saying.

So let's start with number one. If I had more time,

I would exercise more. Think about that sentence for a moment.

If I am imagining a different reality then what do you think

is actually true?

The true reality is I don't have time.

And as a result, I'm not exercising more.

But with that second conditional sentence,

I'm imagining something different.

I may even be expressing some regret.

Maybe I want to have more time to exercise,

but it's just not possible right now. Let's try another example.

If their company had a better reputation,

we would consider them for a contract. Again,

we're using the second conditional to indicate that something is unreal or

unlikely. So what is the truth in that sentence?

What is true about that company?

The truth is they don't have a good reputation.

And if that is the truth, then what is the result?

Are we likely to have a contract with them or not? Definitely not.

The reality is they don't have a good reputation.

So it's unlikely that we'll consider them for a contract.

This is a great sentence structure to use. If someone asks you,

why don't you consider using this other company?

Or why don't you consider going to that restaurant for your birthday?

And you want to politely say why you will not consider it.

Similar to the company you might say if that restaurant had a better

reputation,

or if that restaurant had better reviews,

I would consider going there for my birthday.

It's a polite way to say that the truth is they have terrible

reviews and you definitely do not want to consider going there for your

birthday. Before I give you another example for us to work on together.

I want you to pause and think about that. Is there a city, a country,

a museum, a restaurant, or some other location that someone has asked,

have you considered, or why don't you consider going there?

And you want to politely respond with why you're not considering it

again. You would follow that structure if they had better reviews,

if they had a better reputation,

if the museum wasn't so crowded,

then I would.

So I want you to think about how you would finish an example,

sentence like that and share it with me below. In a moment,

we're going to look at how we use the second conditional for giving advice,

opinions, or suggestions, but let's do one more practice.

And this is a great opportunity to focus on how the second conditional can be

used in negotiations.

Imagine that one side is asking a company to cut costs,

but that company is unwilling to compromise.

They might say something like if we reduced our costs by

10%, we would have to cut our staff.

And we're just not willing to do that.

The reality in that situation is this company does not want

to cut their staff. And as a result, they are not going to cut their costs.

It is an effective,

polite way to say no to a request in an negotiation.

All right, now let's talk about using the second conditional for giving advice,

suggestions, or opinions. And for this, we use a very simple starter.

If I were you, if I were you, I would be honest about what happened.

If I were you,

I would study a little bit every day to develop a daily English habit.

If I were you, I would tell them we cannot negotiate on the costs.

And each one of those sentences,

I'm following the formula that we need for the second conditional.

And I'm offering my advice or my opinions on a variety of topics.

We typically use this structure in professional, polite conversation.

Before we finish up today's lesson, I want to focus on two more things.

The first is how we use second conditionals for fun

conversation.

And the second are some alternatives that we can use to the word would.

If you've studied with me before then, you know,

I love to highlight how we use second conditionals for fun

conversationquestions. English,

speakers love using the second conditional for interesting conversation

questions. And again, imagining something different or unlikely.

If you could travel anywhere in the world for two weeks, where would you go?

Or if you could change your career, what would you do?

All of those questions, of course,

focus on something that is unlikely or unreal at this time.

It's unlikely to have the ability to travel anywhere in the world for two weeks.

And at this point in my career, and maybe also in your career,

it's unlikely that I'll change,

but it's kind of fun to think about all those different situations and

what could be different.

So even if you avoid using the second conditional in your own

conversations,

don't be surprised if an English speaker asks you a second,

conditional question just for fun. Now,

the last important thing to know about second conditionals is in that formula

that we have,

we could replace would with the words might or

could. And when we do that,

there's just a little change in the meaning.

When we have the word would,

we're indicating that something is unlikely or unreal, maybe even impossible.

If I use the word,

might it indicates that something is possible,

but it's unlikely to happen. And if we use the word,

could it indicates that there is the ability

someone would be able to do something, but again, it's unlikely.

Let's take a look at several sentences that are the same.

And the only thing that's different is whether we're using would,

could or might.

And we'll see how that little change impacts the meaning to do

this. Let's imagine a company that provides a service,

but customers have to wait a very long time for that

service.

So the employees are talking about how to cut or

reduce the response time.

And here are three different sentences we could use.

If the company reduced their response times they would have more

customers. So what's the truth.

The truth is it's unlikely that it will happen.

It's unlikely that they will reduce those response times.

And as a result, it's unlikely that they will get more customers,

a second option. If the company reduced their response times,

they might get more customers. In that example,

the word might indicate that it's possible, but it's not a guarantee,

even if they're successful,

even if they do reduce those response times,

it's not a guarantee that they'll get more customers.

And lastly, if the company reduced their response times,

they could get more customers by using the word could.

We're indicating that they would be able to have more customers.

Maybe they would have increased capacity to have more

customers.

We often use this particular structure when we're offering a suggestion or

sharing an idea,

even though it may be an unlikely suggestion or an

unlikely solution. All right,

I know that that's a lot of information.

And the second conditional is always a challenge.

And that's why I have a few challenge questions for you,

because I want you to practice. I want you to get the repetition.

You need to become familiar with the pattern or the structure that we

need to use and get comfortable with this idea of

expressing something that is unlikely, unreal, or impossible,

expressing a regret or a wish for something different,

or even offering advice, opinions, and suggestions.

So here's some questions I have for you. If you had more free time,

what would you do with it?

If your friend at work made a huge mistake.

What would you say?

This is your opportunity to think about an opinion or a piece of advice.

If you found this lesson useful to you, I would love to know,

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answer the challenge, questions, and share your answers with me.

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You can share this lesson with them by sharing it on Facebook or sending it

directly by email with that. Thank you so much for joining me.

And I look forward to seeing you next time for your Confident English lesson.