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3rd Conditional
In today's Grammar - Online! lesson we continue our unit on Conditional Sentences
All the examples you see below were contributed
by ESL students in their writing and reading classes. We bring you only authentic
writing.
Click here for our lesson in 1st conditional. Click here for our lesson in 2nd conditional.
When Do We Use the 3rd Conditional?
Use the 3rd conditional when the if Clause is not true in the past.
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If he had been honest, he would have been happier.
-
If my grandfather had known about this, he never would have forgiven me.
How Do We Form the 3rd Conditional?
| 3rd Conditional | |
|
"if" clause - Past Perfect Tense |
"result" clause:
would + Past Perfect Tense |
This
paragraph contains errors with conditionals. First
read the paragraph so you understand what the writer is
saying. Then edit for correctness.
(1) I came here to the United States in 1996, when
I was fifteen years old. (2) Two years later,
my grandparents wrote me a letter telling me that they wanted
me to go back to China to meet a girl and get married.
(3) When I received the letter, I laughed. (4)
I couldn't even take care of myself; how could I take care
of a family? (5) But my parents agreed with
my grandparents and wanted me to go back to China after
I graduated high school. (6) Let's imagine if
I listen to my parents when I was seventeen and go back
to China and meet a girl and then get married. (7)
I don't think I would be able to go to high school and college
and doing something that I really wanted to do, as I am
doing now. (8) Of course if I didn't come to
the U.S. in the first place and go to American schools,
my way of thinking will be much different from how it is
here and now.
Next...Punctuation of Conditional Sentences
Join continue with our next lesson, "Punctuation of Conditional Sentences."
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