ENGLISH LESSON: Third Conditional Sentences
Today we're going to take a look at one of the most difficult grammar rules in English - Third Conditional Sentences! Hope that this lesson's going to be interesting for you!
Transcript:
Hey, everyone, I'm Peter and you are watching English Channel.
In today's video, we're going to be taking a look at one of the most complicated rules in the English grammar. And that is the third conditional sentence or type three conditional sentence. This lesson is for advanced learners, not for the beginners. So, the third conditional sentence. What is it? Basically, this sentence expresses regret about something that happened in the past. It expresses regret. It consists of the "if" clause and the main clause. The basic structure is: "if this thing had happened, that thing would have happened, that thing would have happened." "Would have" can be shortened to "would've".
Let's take a look at an example. If I had worked harder, I would have passed my exam. The word "had" can be shortened as well. It can be shortened to " 'd ". For example, if I worked harder, I would've passed my exam. You can also reverse the word order. You can put the main clause in front of the "if" clause. I would have passed my exam, if I'd worked harder.
Let's take a look at the next example. If I had checked the oil on my car, I would have taken it to the auto repair shop sooner. If you are not sure about the certainty of what would happen, then you can use the words "could" or "might" - the model verbs, modals. For example: if I had checked the oil on my car, I might have taken it to the auto repair shop sooner.
The next example: if his wife had told him about the affair, he would have divorced her.
If his wife had told him - is the conditional clause or the "if" clause. If his wife had told him about the affair, he could have divorced her. By the way, the word "affair" means that his wife is cheating on him. Let's try to shorten would have to would've. If his wife had told him about the affair, he would've divorced her. Let's change the word order. Let's put the main clause in front and let's put the "if" clause or the conditional clause behind. He would have divorced his wife if she had told him about the affair.
By the way, the word "had" can be shortened to " 'd " only with personal pronouns such as "I you, he or she". In this example it cannot be shortened to " 'd ", because the word "wife" is not a personal pronoun. So you have to use "had". If she had told him about the affair, he would have divorced her.
Next example, if I had known this piece of information, I would have acted differently.
Let's change head to " 'd ". "I" is a personal pronoun, so we can change the word "had" to " 'd ", no problem. If I'd known this piece of information, I would have acted differently. Let's swap the clauses. I would have acted differently if I had known this piece of information.
Thank you very much for watching until the end. It's a complicated topic, but these sentences are used in everyday speech, so it's very useful. I hope that you've learned a lot from this video. Please like this video, share it with a friend and subscribe to the channel.
Also, click the little notification Bell. I will see you in the next video! Take care and bye for now!
Chapters:
0:00 intro
0:35 What is the Third Conditional
0:52 Grammatical structure
2:17 Examples
9:04 outro
@englishchann on Tik Tok and Instagram