Compare ALL English Conditional Sentences (with examples!)

Well, hey there. I'm Emma from mmmEnglish.

Today we are going to go through everything you need to know about English

conditionals. We'll cover the zero conditional, the first conditional,

the second, the third,

and mixed conditional sentences all here in this one lesson.

So there's a fair bit to cover, but by the end of this lesson,

you are going to have everything you need to know about English conditional

sentences. Plus,

I've made you a complete workbook that you can download and use to practise

everything you learn in this lesson.

It's completely free so that you can study and practise to your heart's content.

Just follow the link down in the description.

But what I recommend is that you stay right here,

you get your notebook out, stay focused,

and you do your best to stay with me through the whole lesson.

I know it's long, I know it's hard,

but after that you can go and take the quiz to test what you know and also

find out which conditional sentences you might need to review and practise

again. Are you ready? Let's dive in.

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The zero conditional is also called the factual or the real conditional

because we use it to talk about truths and facts,

things that are real in the world.

We also use it to talk about habits and rules and to give

instructions that are the result of something else happening first.

So in other words, if this happens,

then this is the result. Always. Okay?

It's a fact. It's the truth. It's just how it is.

It's what happens. Let's take a closer look at what it looks like

because it's really simple.

We use the present simple in both clauses. Now,

why does it say if or when can be used in the

if clause? That's a good question. In the zero conditional,

you can use either if or when in the if clause.

And the meaning with either word is pretty similar,

but we use if when there is a chance that the action will happen,

but it might not happen as well. Okay? If it does happen,

then we know exactly what the result will be. If I work out, I feel healthier.

So I work out and the result is pretty obvious. When I do work out,

I feel healthier, I feel better about myself. It's true,

but that doesn't mean that I do it all the time, right?

I don't always feel healthy,

especially if I don't work out. We use when we know for

sure that that action is going to happen.

We might not know exactly when it's going to happen, but we know that it will.

Okay? When I work out, I feel healthier.

So I've removed the possibility that it's not going to happen.

There's no question about it. I will work out the specific time. Doesn't matter.

We just know that it's going to happen in the future.

So it's a subtle difference. Very, very subtle.

And the same difference actually applies in the first conditional.

We can use if or when as well in the first conditional, but we'll get to that.

Back to forming the zero conditional.

Let's look at a few examples to help us do that.

When the sun sets, it gets dark.

If you leave milk out, it spoils. If the power goes out,

we can't watch tv.

So these are all facts and truths right? Now,

what about this sentence. In winter it's cold.

Is it a zero conditional sentence? It's a fact.

It has the present simple verb,

but it's not a conditional sentence. Can you tell me why

We don't have two clauses? It is a fact,

but we don't have the condition and the result clause.

It's just a present simple sentence.

But what about now if it's cold, light the fire.

Now we've got a condition and the result,

and this is a good example of how the zero conditional can be used to give

instructions,

and I'm using the imperative form to do that.

I'm telling you what to do, instructing you.

We also use the zero conditional to talk about rules.

Children can swim if an adult is with them,

and we use it to talk about habits. If it's hot,

I go to the beach. This is something that I usually do. It's a habit, right?

It happens often.

Can you see how in all of these examples that the two separate parts of the

sentence are connected?

We're stating a fact or a truth in the main clause,

but it's only possible on the condition that the if

clause occurs.

So now we know that the zero conditional is the factual or the real

conditional. What about the first conditional?

It's also called the possible conditional. Now,

we're not talking about facts anymore,

things that are absolutely 100% true.

Now we're talking about possible future results.

They might happen, but they might not happen as well.

So can you guess when it might be useful to use the first conditional a

time when you are thinking about what's possible in the future?

We can use it to talk about predictions, superstitions plans,

promises, offers, suggestions,

and warnings.

There's a lot of different ways that we can use the first conditional.

So all of these things talk about what is likely to happen in the

future, a likely outcome. So in the first conditional,

we're not just using the present simple anymore, right?

Because we're talking about the future. In the if clause,

we still use a present simple verb,

but in the main clause we use the future tense. Well,

if this thing happens, then this will likely happen.

It will probably happen.

We can't be absolutely sure you think so

If you don't eat now, you'll be hungry later.

If she doesn't call, I'll be annoyed.

And just like in the zero conditional,

we can still use if or when in the if clause,

and it depends on how sure we are that something is going to happen.

And when tells us that we're very,

very confident that the action in the if clause is going to happen

and the result in the main clause is the most likely outcome

when the sun sets, it will get cold. Now,

what about this sentence? If aliens arrive on

earth, I will greet them. Now, I'll give you a clue.

There is something not quite right about this sentence,

something about it sounds strange,

but it has a present simple verb and will with the base verb following.

So it looks right, but this isn't a possible situation.

Well, not really.

I could be unintentionally starting a debate about the existence of alien life

right here.

But this is more of a hypothetical situation.

So it would be better to use the second conditional to talk about this

hypothetical situation.

So we talked about the zero conditional.

We've talked about the first conditional,

but what's the difference between them and why would you choose one over the

other? Let's take a look.

If you leave the milk out, it spoils.

If you leave the milk out,

it will spoil which one's correct.

It's a trick question. They're both correct. They're both possible.

But choosing to use the zero or the first conditional does change the

meaning of the sentence a little. So in the first sentence,

we're stating a general fact. It's true, right?

In general, in life,

at any moment when you leave milk out of the fridge,

it spoils.

So I might use the zero conditional to explain to a child that milk

spoils when it's not in the fridge, right?

The child didn't know that fact beforehand.

I'm telling them so that they know in the future when I use the first

conditional sentence,

I'm telling you about a possible outcome based on the

current situation.

So it's like advice or warning about a present situation,

something that is specific. So imagine that you've just made a coffee,

you left the milk on the bench,

and then you've gone off to the living room to watch some telly.

So I'm using the first conditional now to warn you or remind you

about what might happen if you don't put the milk in the fridge.

So I'm not telling you a general life lesson or a fact about life,

you probably already know that milk spoils,

but I'm giving you a suggestion or a reminder that you should put it in the

fridge. Now, let's look at a few more comparisons.

When the sun sets, it gets cold,

compare it to when the sun sets it will get cold.

So I'm using the zero conditional again to talk about a general fact,

all right? Around the world in general,

it gets colder when the sun sets.

But if you are about to leave the house and you're wearing just a t-shirt,

and I might be a little bit worried that you're going to get cold,

then I might use the first conditional sentence to remind you that

in a few hours when the sun sets,

it's probably going to get cold. And maybe you should bring a jacket.

Let's try one more. If she doesn't call, I'm annoyed.

If she doesn't call, I'll be annoyed.

So in the first situation,

the zero conditional is used because it's something that happens a lot, right?

She often doesn't call, and every time I'm annoyed,

every time she doesn't call, I'm annoyed.

It's a really general statement about how I feel on many occasions.

In the first conditional example though,

I'm talking about a specific phone call.

Maybe I'm waiting for a colleague to call. I'm waiting for some information,

information that I need to finish writing my report by the deadline,

and she promised to call me this afternoon.

So I'm not talking about her general calling habits.

I don't always get annoyed with her,

but I am talking about right now in this moment,

I'm worried that my colleague's not going to call,

and I'm just expressing that it's really annoying

because I'm trying to finish my report.

I hope that you're feeling a bit more confident about using the zero and first

conditional now because it's time to practise. So what I'm going to

do is I'll give you a situation and you're going to have to write

either a zero conditional sentence or a first conditional sentence to go with

it, whichever one you think is the most appropriate one. All right?

I want you to write your sentences in the comments below for now.

Let's start with this one.

You're a teacher and you want to warn your students that they need to

do their homework or tomorrow there's going to be trouble.

They're going to get in trouble, right?

So should you use the zero or the first conditional

Good should be the first conditional. Now,

this is a warning about a specific situation,

not a general truth, because we're talking about tomorrow.

Okay? So you could say something like, if you don't do your homework,

you will be in trouble. All right?

Let's get started with this lesson.

When can you use the second conditional?

We use it in a few ways to imagine that our lives or

someone else's life is different.

We use it to ask hypothetical questions,

to give advice and to give reasons why you can't do something.

So you might have practised a little with the first two,

but the third and the fourth are both interesting and different ways to

use the second conditional. So I'm really excited to get into those.

But let's start with number one.

We use the second conditional to talk about things in the future that are

unlikely or things that are impossible in the present. So

we use it to imagine and to dream that the present situation is

different than it really is. Now,

this could be because it's impossible now or because it's really

unlikely to become real in the future. Not completely impossible,

but unlikely. So with the second conditional, we say,

if this happened, then that would happen.

So for example, if I had enough money,

I would buy a house. If the present situation was different,

then I would do that. If I won the lottery,

I'd buy a house. Now,

this is an unlikely event in the future, right?

Because it's unlikely I'm going to win the lottery possible, but unlikely.

But before we keep going with the other ways to use the second conditional,

let's spend a little bit of time focusing on what it looks like.

Conditional sentences all have an if clause and a

main clause, which is sometimes also called the result clause,

because it can only happen if

clause occurs. It's a condition, right?

If this happens, then that happens. Now,

what exactly makes a conditional sentence? The second conditional.

So the second conditional uses a past simple verb in the if

clause then would followed by the Infiniti

verb in the main clause. If she lived in London,

she would have English friends.

If clause is the condition, does she live in London?

No, we're talking about a hypothetical situation here, right?

So the result clause suggests what would be different

and would tells us that where imagining the result,

or she would have English friends, it's not real.

She doesn't have English friends now,

but it could happen ifshe lived in London.

If she lived in London, she would have English friends.

Now you can definitely make one or both clauses

negative in a second conditional sentence. If I didn't want to go,

I would tell you

if I didn't finish my homework, I wouldn't tell my teacher.

And of course we can ask second conditional questions too

hypothetical questions to ask someone to imagine what they would

do in a different situation. So these situations are not real,

but it's kind of fun to ask these types of questions, right?

Really helps to keep conversations going sometimes.

What would you do if you quit your job,

if you won a million dollars? Would you travel the world?

If you only had one day in Singapore, what would you do?

See how fun these types of questions can be.

Choose one of them to answer in the comments below,

but make sure you write your answer as a full second conditional sentence

to practise the structure. Okay,

if I only had one in Singapore, I would.

Now you can actually use could in the if clause to ask a similar

question.

So you would be saying if you were able to or if it were

possible to, if you could travel to any country,

where would you go?

Now notice that when you use could in the if clause,

the verb that follows could is in the infinity form,

not in the past. Simple. And that's because it's a modal verb, right?

Standard English grammar rule after modal verbs,

we always have the definitive.

Now we've been talking about hypothetical situations so far,

but what are these other uses?

Because we can use the second conditional to give advice.

And if you think about it, when someone asks you for advice,

you usually try to imagine what you would do in their situation and share

that with them. So for example, if I were you,

I'd talk to my boss before I quit my job,

or if I were her, I'd break up with him. Now,

if you're wondering why in both of those examples I was using were with

the subject I,

I'm going to talk about that in a few minutes. But lastly,

you can use the second conditional to give reasons why you can't do something.

You've probably already noticed that English speakers are usually quite polite

to each other. Instead of just saying no,

we often try and soften our responses by explaining why we can't

do something.

And sometimes you might just want to explain a situation a little more.

So the second conditional can really help you to do this. So for example,

if I had the money, I'd lend it to you.

I don't have to explain myself any further here.

This sentence already explains that I don't have the money, so I can't help.

But it suggests that maybe you want to that maybe you

would if you could.

If I wasn't so busy, I'd invite you over for dinner,

but I am really busy so I can't invite you over.

So we've covered what the second conditional looks like and when you can use

it,

but now I want to share some extra tips to help you understand it better

and to help you use it accurately. So the first one I want to mention is

that if is a conjunction, right?

The purpose of conjunctions is to join two sentences or two

different clauses together.

There's a really strong relationship between the two clauses in a conditional

sentence, right? They're really connected.

The if clause contains a condition and the main clause contains the

result, right? They rely on each other. Now,

you may know that with all conditional sentences you can change the order of

your clauses. When this happens, it doesn't change the meaning,

but there is an important punctuation change that you need to make.

If it stopped raining, I would go for a walk.

I would go for a walk if it stopped raining.

Now the meaning in these two sentences is exactly the same.

But notice that when the main clause comes first,

we don't include that comma before the if clause. Now to be honest,

this is really only significant if you're sitting in English exam or you're

doing academic writing.

You're going to get marked down for that type of punctuation error.

But generally it's not really something you need to lose sleep over.

Now in spoken English, the subject and wood,

they're usually contracted, I'd, you'd, she'd, he'd

they'd, we'd. Now,

it's much easier to say this type of sentence quickly and it helps

you to sound a little more relaxed as well. But these contractions,

very common in spoken English, common in informal written English.

But you shouldn't be using contractions in formal written English, right?

Just steer clear completely. Now,

one of the most interesting parts about the second conditional is that it breaks

some standard B verb grammar rules, right?

We can actually use were instead of was with

i, he she and it, right?

Both of them are grammatically correct,

but I guess is a little more formal. All right?

So we would use it in more formal situations. If I was you,

I would break up with him. If I were you,

I would break up with him. Both of those sentences are the same.

If she was taller, if she were taller,

she would be an air hostess. So again, we can use either,

it's totally okay. Wear is a little more formal.

Today we're going to go a little deeper on the first and the second conditional,

I'm going to give you lots of examples to help you understand when to use the

first and when to use the second plus.

I'll also be talking about how to use conditionals without if,

which is pretty shocking.

I know because if is the star of conditional

sentences,

but actually you can use other words in place of if as well.

So I'm going to go through all of that right here during this lesson.

So I want you to tell me what's the difference between the first conditional

and the second conditional.

So the best way to think about it is the first conditional is real.

We use it to talk about things that are possible in the future and

there's a likely chance of it happening.

So to make the first conditional, it's simple.

We use the present simple verb in our if clause and we use the

future tense will in our main clause.

So we use will along with a bare Infiniti verb.

If I miss the bus, I will take a taxi.

If they lose the game, they won't go to the finals.

If you get too close to the flames, you'll get burned.

So notice that with all of these examples, these are real,

they are possible and they're likely to happen in the future.

Now, when we move to the second conditional,

we actually have to leave the real world,

the actual world behind us because although there is a

possibility of the result happening, when we use the second conditional,

it tells us that the action is quite unlikely. So it's often called the

unreal tense.

So we use the second conditional to talk about imaginary situations in the

present. So these are unreal situations,

but we also use it to talk about unlikely future outcomes as well.

So it looks like if and the past,

simple in our if clauses,

and then would with the bare infinity verb following in our main clause,

if I missed the bus, I would take a taxi.

If they lost the gain, they wouldn't go to the finals.

If you got too close to the flames, you'd get burned.

Wait a second.

These examples look pretty similar to the first conditional examples.

So with just a couple of little edits,

we have subtly changed these results to seem less

likely.

Suddenly we've got a set of hypothetical or imaginary

situations and their results,

but those results are unlikely to actually happen,

right? Such is the second conditional.

Many ideas can be correctly expressed in English using both the

first and the second conditional sentence structure.

But each type of sentence changes the meaning noticeably.

So you really need to be careful about which type of

sentence structure you're using. You've got to carefully choose.

So let's look at a couple of examples to help you out.

So if I missed the bus, I will take a taxi.

If I missed the bus, I would take a taxi. Now,

in the first example, this is real and possible.

It's based on an actual situation.

Just imagine that you are walking down the street quite quickly towards the bus

stop because it's actually the exact time that the bus is supposed to

arrive and there is a chance it's pulling up at the bus stop right now you're

hoping that it's not because you're going to be late,

otherwise you still want to make it to work on time. But in your

head, as you are walking, you're coming up with a backup plan, right?

A plan B, here's what you're going to do.

If I miss the bus, I will take a taxi.

So this situation is based on a real life scenario,

something that is likely to happen.

It's a good chance that bus has already come to the bus stop and you are

not there. But the second example, in the second conditional,

totally imaginary. Maybe I've got no plans at all to take the bus.

Maybe I don't even take the bus to work,

or perhaps I'm extremely punctual.

I'm almost never late to the bus.

But for whatever reason, this thing,

the outcome is very unlikely to happen,

and we know that because we're using the second conditional.

So you can see how powerful this decision is, right?

The grammar structure that you choose influences the meaning of your sentence.

Let's do a few more examples together just to make sure you've got it.

If I run out of butter, I'll just use oil. So again,

imagine that you're baking and there isn't much butter

left. You can't be bothered going to the shops. So I've got a plan.

If I run out of butter, I know what I'm going to do and this is a likely event.

If I ran out of butter, I just use oil. Now,

this is a hypothetical situation.

I'm not talking about a specific baking event that's happening now.

I'm just talking about what I would hypothetically do if this

ever happened to me while I was baking. I could be giving advice to someone

who's asking, oh, if I ran out of butter, I'd just use oil.

You won't notice the difference. If she finds a dog on the street,

she'll adopt it. She loves dogs, right?

She has plans to adopt a dog. In fact,

she's looking for a dog and there are lots of street dogs in her area.

So it's quite likely that if she finds a dog on the street that doesn't

have a home, it's quite likely that she'll adopt it.

If she found a dog on the street, she'd adopt it. So again,

she loves dogs. Perhaps there's actually not many street dogs in her area,

which makes the outcome quite unlikely.

If she were taller, she would play basketball.

So this is the second conditional, right?

And she's imagining what she would do if she had been born taller,

but she wasn't right? She can't change her height.

So this situation has to be unreal. So for that reason,

be careful because we can't write a version of this in the first conditional.

There isn't a likely chance or a likely outcome

where this would happen.

She can't change the way that she is.

However, we can make a couple of changes to make it possible.

We can say if we're talking about a child who is still growing,

then it's possible, but we might have to change the verb and say,

if she grows taller, she will play basketball.

It's really important to keep in mind that many ideas can be expressed in the

first or the second conditional,

depending on whether they're real or imaginary.

But not all ideas can be expressed in both tenses,

right? So be careful about that real versus imaginary.

Hopefully you're starting to feel pretty good about the difference between the

first and the second conditional, right?

But I've got one extra thing that I want you to keep in mind.

So take a look at this sentence here. Is it a conditional sentence?

It has two clauses. It has a present tense verb. In the first clause,

it has will and the base verb in the main clause,

but it doesn't have the word if

It actually doesn't matter. This sentence is still a conditional sentence,

a first conditional sentence,

and there are a couple of very specific words that you can use to

replace if in the first and also the second

conditional sentence structure. It's still a conditional sentence,

but the word that you choose of course has the ability to

change the meaning of your sentence slightly.

Unless it rains soon the lake will dry up.

Or if it rains soon, the lake won't dry up.

Both of these sentences are okay, they're great,

but of course the change affects the meaning of our sentence slightly.

So we need to be aware of that. So you can definitely replace if with the word,

unless, but the meaning is slightly different.

It means if not or accept if,

and you can use unless in the first and the second conditional sentence

structure.

But it can't be used to talk about past situations that can't be

changed. So you can't use unless in the third conditional sentence structure,

for example, check out some examples.

Unless she apologises, I will not forgive her

unless it gets below zero degrees, the water won't freeze

unless they fired me. I wouldn't leave the company

Besides unless. And if we can also use as long as,

which is really,

really useful if you want to set a limit or a condition on the

expression.

So this is like saying if and only if the

condition happens. So if the condition doesn't happen,

then the result is not possible or it's not allowed as long as

is usually used with the first conditional because it's used

when the result is expected.

As long as I get time off work, I'll come for a visit.

As long as it's not too crowded, we'll stay for dinner.

As long as he finishes his homework, he'll join you at the skate park.

Great work. We're almost done. We've got one more option to replace if with,

and that is using supposing or

supposing that.

So using supposing that helps the listener to imagine

a situation. So it's really similar to using if,

but just with a bit of extra command to really tell the listener that you want

them to imagine turn on their imagination. Now,

it can be used in either the first or the second conditional,

but it's much more comfortable in the second conditional for sure,

because you're imagining, right,

supposing I can change my flight. I'll come a few days earlier.

Supposing you got a huge Christmas bonus, would you go on a holiday?

Like all conditional sentences.

The third conditional has two clauses,

the if clause and the main clause.

But unlike the zero, the first and the second conditionals,

this one talks about the past and specifically an

unreal past, not a true past, an unreal one.

We use the third conditional to imagine a situation in the

past and the imaginary result,

which is also in the past. Okay? So it's imaginary. It's not real.

It's not true, okay? Because we can't change the past.

Sometimes we wish we could, but we can't.

So that's why you'll often hear the third conditional being used to talk about

regrets, things that we wish were different.

So let's look at a few examples to get started.

If I had left earlier, I wouldn't have missed my flight.

So I'm a bit upset about that, right? I'm upset I missed my flight.

I wish that I had have left my house a little bit earlier and not run late.

I wish that I could go back in time and be on the plane,

but I can't because my flight's gone.

There's nothing that I can do about it now except buy another ticket. Well,

we can use the third conditional to show how angry or how frustrated we are

about this situation right now. Look, if you hadn't been so rude,

they would've invited you back.

You were rude. Well, obviously that didn't work out well for you did it.

Now they're not going to invite you back again in the future.

You can't go back and change it. Now can you, whether you want to or not.

So I'm just going to use the third conditional. Now to tell you off,

if I hadn't been going so fast, I wouldn't have been fined.

Yeah, I got fined, which is annoying, but it's already happened.

I can't change it now, right? That's something you definitely can't change.

So we use the third conditional to talk about things that we regret,

things that we wish we could change about the past,

and also to tell someone off for something that they did in the

past. So it's pretty useful, right?

It's a really handy structure to have up your sleeve to know. All right,

so let's talk about what it looks like now.

So to make the third conditional, we need a few things.

We need if and the past, perfect.

Then we need a comma, and then we need the perfect conditional.

You might be wondering what the heck is the past perfect or the perfect

conditional. So think about it this way,

the past perfect is subject with had

and the past participant verb. If I had left earlier,

if you hadn't been so rude if I hadn't been going so

fast, okay, these are all examples of the past, perfect.

Now the perfect conditional is subject

with wood have and the pastable verb.

So it's just the present, perfect with wood in front of it.

I wouldn't have missed my flight.

They would have invited you back. I wouldn't have got that

ticket. So let's put the third conditional all together.

We need,

if the subject had and the past

participant, then our comma, very important,

followed by our subject,

would have a past participant.

That's the third conditional.

So let's look at some examples to help it sink in a little. All right,

let's do our third conditional checks first. All right?

Are we talking about the past or the present here?

It was in the past. Did it actually happen?

No, you didn't call. So I didn't come.

I wish that I could change this because I'd love to come.

If she had replied to my message, I wouldn't have been so worried.

So I'm kind of telling her off here, right? I'm a bit frustrated.

Did she reply to my message,

but was I worried? Yeah,

I wish that she had so that I didn't have to worry.

If I had taken better care of myself, I wouldn't have got sick.

So I'm expressing regret about the past here.

I wish I'd taken better care of myself. Now,

you'll remember from some of my other conditional lessons that we can actually

use different modal verbs in the main claws.

So we can replace would have with other modal,

like might and could.

So we use might have to show probability or certainty

If she'd studied more, she might have passed,

but she might have also failed. Again, we are not sure. We're not certain,

right? If we were certain about that imaginary result in the past,

then we would use would have. That's more certain.

Since we're not exactly sure about what the result would've been.

Then using might have is probably the better option. Now,

we use could have to talk about possibility and ability.

If you had lent me your car, I could have got there faster.

Now, I'm not promising that I absolutely would've.

I'm just saying that I would've been able to get there

faster with a car.

I would have the ability to arrive sooner.

So now that we've broken it down a little bit,

how are you feeling about the third conditional?

And if you are thinking something along the lines of,

if I'd seen this video earlier, I wouldn't have been so confused.

Well, I must be doing something right.

I know that conditionals can be a little overwhelming because of the

subtle differences between all of the different types of conditionals,

but also the significant differences in meaning.

So hopefully with each of my conditional lessons,

it's becoming a little clearer. So if you're enjoying this series,

make sure you share this lesson, like the lesson,

share it with anyone that you think will find it useful.

Mixed conditionals are exactly what they sound like a conditional sentence

that mixes two different times in one sentence.

Now it sounds a little tricky,

but I'm here to go over it with you and to help you practise with me later on in

this lesson. So don't worry.

If you had learned how to use mixed conditionals already,

you wouldn't need to watch this lesson. Check it out.

That is a mixed, conditional sentence. And by the end of this video,

you'll be feeling much more confident about using mixed conditionals as you

speak in English. So let's go. If you've watched some of my previous lessons,

or perhaps you've studied conditionals at school, well,

you'll know that the zero conditional is used to talk about facts and things

that are generally true.

The first conditional talks about a likely present situation.

The second talks about hypothetical or highly unlikely

present or future situations.

And the third conditional is a past situation which didn't happen.

So these are all useful for talking about situations that relate to

actions in isolation in their own time.

So the third conditional relates to the past,

but mixed conditionals help you to move through time.

So a past action with a present result gets exciting.

As I mentioned earlier,

a key idea when we use mixed conditionals is time,

but don't confuse time with verb tense. So of course,

we use different verb tenses to express different times. That's true.

But time and tense are not always the same thing.

So if we take a look at a couple of sentences,

I had a dog when I was a child.

She was cleaning all day yesterday.

So are these two sentences using the same verb tense?

This is the past simple, and this one is the past continuous.

They're not using the same tenses,

but they are referring to the same time.

They both take place in the past. So they have the same time reference.

And like I said earlier,

mixed conditionals are conditional sentences that use two different

times in them. They help us to move between two times.

So if clause and the main clause in a mixed conditional sentence have

different times that work together, if I had woken up earlier,

I wouldn't have missed the bus.

So both these clauses take place in the past, right?

I'm talking about this morning, yesterday morning,

or some other morning in the past, and the result that I missed,

the bus also happened in the past.

So I already missed the bus. I can't change that now.

So let's change the sentence a little to make it a mixed conditional.

To do that, we need one of the clauses to be in a different time.

So if clause is happening in the past,

so let's make our main clause about the present.

If I had woken up earlier, I would be at work already.

I wouldn't have missed the bus, so I would be at work already.

Now in the present. So now we've got a mixed conditional sentence.

One clause refers to a past action, and the other refers to the present.

See, it's not as hard as you think once you break it down,

but it takes practise. So let's keep going.

There are a few different ways that we can do this.

You can mix and match several tenses and times together

to make a mixed conditional sentence.

But I want to focus on the two most common combinations.

So a past action and a present result,

which is just the example that we just looked at,

and then a present condition and a past result.

So remember in both of these sentences,

we're talking about something that's unreal. In the first,

we're talking about changing a past action and the

hypothetical present result that would happen,

but it can't happen because we can't change the past.

And in the second we imagine that the present were

different. Now it's not. But if it were,

then how would the past hypothetically have been

different as a result? It's a little confusing. I know.

Let's keep going. So to create the first one,

we need the past perfect in the if clause and the present,

conditional in the main clause.

So if this thing had happened,

then that thing would happen.

If I had saved more money, I would own this house.

If you hadn't taken that job, we would be travelling together.

If they had paid more attention, they wouldn't be failing in class.

And don't that like all conditionals,

you can change the order of the if clause and the main clause.

This thing would happen if this thing had

happened. So you can swap the order of the clauses,

but all of the information is still there.

I would own this house if I had saved more money.

We still have a hypothetical past action in the if clause

and the hypothetical present result in the main clause.

The other common mixed conditional sentence is a present condition

and a past result.

So this is an unreal present condition to imagine

what the result would've been in the past,

but we'll never really know because this is imaginary, right?

So imagine if this thing happened,

then this would've happened.

Now, all right, let's talk about this for a minute.

Because we're talking about a present condition, right?

But we're using the past simple tense in the if clause,

but that's not a real past, right?

This is how we use the second conditional to express a

hypothetical present situation. If I were more outgoing,

I would've introduced myself. If he wasn't injured,

he would've played the game.

If I wasn't so busy, I would've offered to help. Now,

you can also use this same general form to talk about a future

action and a hypothetical past result. Now,

this is pretty advanced,

but you'll see how it can be a useful way of expressing yourself.

Just imagine that tomorrow you had a really important meeting at work,

a meeting that you've planned and you've organised and set it up for the future.

So you can't go out dancing tonight, obviously,

because you want to be well rested and alert for this meeting.

Your boss is going to be there,

but if I didn't have an important meeting tomorrow,

I would've gone out dancing. If she wasn't going on holiday next month,

she would've asked for a day off.

If you weren't going on a big hike tomorrow,

would you have come on a bike ride today?

So how are you feeling about mixed conditionals now?

I always think that it's easier if you focus less on the complicated grammar

tenses and more on the relationships with time.

And the three most commonly used mixed conditional sentences are simply

a past action with a present result,

a present condition with a past result,

and a future action and a past result.

So now that you know all of this,

I think it's time that we practise a little together.

Phew.

Grammar lessons like this one can sometimes leave you feeling like your brain

has completely turned to mush,

but don't let conditional sentences scare you. Of course,

it will take time and it will take effort to understand how these English

sentences work and how to use them accurately,

but play around with them.

Keep the time and the tenses in mind. If you're reading a book,

highlight a conditional sentence that you read,

and then just think about it for a moment.

Try to understand how the two clauses relate to each other.

And don't forget that I've created the complete conditional workbook so you can

start to think about and use these sentences on your own.

The link is down below.

I hope that you enjoyed this lesson and that you found it useful. Like it,

share it, subscribe. You know what to do.

I'll see you in the next lesson.