Grammar » B1 Grammar lessons and exercises » Third conditional – past unreal situations » Page 2
Exercises Explanation Downloads
  • Third conditional – past unreal situations

    Exercise 2

    Choose the correct form to make third conditional sentences.

    Page 1 of 2

    1 You ______ me if you had gone to the party. Choose TWO correct options
    a.
    b.
    c.
    2 What would you have done if I ______?
    a.
    b.
    c.
    3 They ______ him if I ______ them the money.
    a.
    b.
    c.
    4 If I had stayed in university, I ______ much better jobs.
    a.
    b.
    c.
    5 If I ______ so hard all my life, I might have spent more time with my kids.
    a.
    b.
    c.

     

  • Third conditional – Grammar Chart

    Third conditional – past unreal situations

    Download full-size image from Pinterest

    If clause and main clause

    We use the past perfect in the if-clause of a third conditional sentence to talk about an imaginary or hypothetical situation in the past, and we use would have, could have or might have + past participle in the main clause to talk about the result or consequence of that imaginary situation.

    • If you had come to class more often, you would have passed the test.
    • If he hadn’t taken his helmet, he could have died.
    • If the jacket had been a bit cheaper, I might have bought it.

    Comma

    As with all conditional types, we use a comma after the ifclause when it goes at the beginning of the sentence, but we don’t use a comma when the if-clause goes at the end.

    • If I hadn’t overslept, I wouldn’t have been late.
    • I wouldn’t have been late if I hadn’t overslept.

    Unless

    We can also use unless in conditional sentences to mean if … (not)

    • I wouldn’t have arrived on time unless I had taken a taxi.
    • = I wouldn’t have arrived on time if I hadn’t taken a taxi.
  • We are working on this!

    We're developing a NEW LEARNING PLATFORM with a subscription plan that includes additional features at an affordable price. One of those features will be PDF downloads.

    Learn more!