Conditional II

Tommy: Hello, guys! Welcome to our grammar lessons!

My best friends Maddie, Kristie and Martin will help me make our lessons useful and enjoyable.

Today we are going to speak about conditional sentences of the second type.

Well, some of you probably think that this grammar rule is not so much important. However, we all like dreaming about something, don’t we?

Do you remember your dreams in childhood about being a superman or a famous actress? Or even now when you are extremely tired after a hard day…

Don’t you think about going somewhere and having a perfect holiday?

Or what would you do if you won one million pounds on the lottery?

These are my friends’ blogs. Let’s read what sport they would do if they had a chance to choose.

Maddie’s blog:

If I had a chance to do any sport, I would do paragliding. I’d love to fly! If I had wings, I’d fly really fast, like a bird. If I went paragliding, I’d look down at the earth and take lots of photos. It would be really exciting!

Martin’s blog:

If I could do any sport, I’d go rock climbing. It would be amazing if I learnt to climb from the bottom to the top of a cliff.

Kristie’s blog:

If I had lots of money, I’d buy a big boat and learn to sail. If I did that, then I’d invite all my friends and family to sail round the world. It would be great fun!

That was really interesting!

So, let’s see how to express grammatically correctly our wishes or desires which have no time limit.

In the English language the second conditional is used to talk about what is unlikely to happen in the present or in the future, or an impossible situation. We can just imagine it in our mind or dream. Of course there is always a chance that our dream will come true, but it is just a fairy tale, in reality the percent is very low.

For example:

If I had lots of money, I’d buy a big boat and learn to sail.

(unlikely to happen)

If I had wings, I’d fly really fast, like a bird.

(impossible)

Formation

We make the second conditional with an if - clause and a would/wouldn’t – clause.

We form the if-clause with if + Past Simple.

Remember!

We form the Past Simple Tense with the help of the 2^nd form of the verb.

The verbs can be – regular (Ved) and irregular (use the list of irregular verbs/learn by heart)

We form the would/wouldn’t-clause with would/wouldn’t + base form.

“Would” is often shortened to ‘d, especially in spoken English.

For example:

If I had a chance to do any sport, I would do paragliding.

If I did that, I’d invite all my friends and family to sail round the world.

When the if-clause comes first, we add a comma.

When the would/wouldn’t – clause comes first, we don’t add a comma.

Compare:

If I learnt to climb from the bottom to the top of a cliff, it would be amazing.

It would be amazing if I learnt to climb from the bottom to the top of a cliff.

If in the “if part” of the sentence we have the verb “TO BE”, it is used in the form “were” for all persons.

For example:

If he were a better player, he would score more goals.

If my brother were a computer specialist, he would easily find a job.

If you were not so lazy, you could study better.

If my parents were here now, they would help us.

Besides, when we want to give a piece of advice we begin the sentence with “If I were you…” or “If I were in your position” or even spoken variant “If I were in your shoes…

Here are some examples:

If I were in your shoes, I would not talk over the phone so much.

If I were you, I wouldn’t complain.

If I were you, I would take an umbrella.

If I were in your position, I would use a sunblock before going to the beach.

In the would-clause instead of “would” we can also use modal verbs could or might, but in such sentences the speaker is not so certain about the probability or the result.

Let’s compare:

If she knew her address, she would tell me. (He is 100% sure about that.)

If she knew her address, she might tell me. (It is possible to happen, but may be 50/50).

If you bought a bike, you could/might get a lot fitter.

We make second conditional questions with would/wouldn’t + subject + base form + if-clause:

For example:

Would I learn English faster, if I lived in England for a month? – Yes, you would. / No, you wouldn’t.

Or we may make questions with if-clause + would/wouldn’t +subject+base form.

For example:

If I lived in England for a month, would I learn English faster? – Yes, you would. / No, you wouldn’t.

Now it’s time to practice the rule with Martin.

Can you answer the following questions? Use the prompts in brackets.

What would you do if ….?

1. you saw a mouse in your room?

- If I saw a mouse in my room I would keep it as a pet / I would scream.

2. What would you do if you won 100,000 pounds on the lottery?

- If I won 100,000 pounds on the lottery, I would buy the most expensive BMX bike. / I wouldn’t spend it at all – I would save half of it.

3. What would you do if you went camping with your friends and they said you snored?

- If my friends said that I snored, I wouldn’t believe them. / I would go to see a doctor.

4. What would you do if you were invisible for a day?

- If I were invisible for a day, I would play practical jokes on people. / I wouldn’t like it at all.

That`s all for today.

If I were you, I would join us at our grammar lessons at videouroki.net. You’d find a lot of useful information and improve your language skills.