Quick Grammar Class - Third Conditionals
We've already looked at zero, first and second conditionals, so now it's time to look at third conditionals. Once again, we have a condition and a result, but this time the condition is given in the past perfect (sometimes called the pluperfect) while the result is given using the words would or could followed by the present perfect (remember: would and could can be contracted to 'd).
We use the third conditional when talking about events in the past that didn't happen. For example:
If he'd had enough money, he would have bought her a diamond ring. (He didn't have enough money, so he didn't buy her a diamond ring.)
If I'd known they didn’t from free-range chickens, I wouldn’t have eaten those eggs. (I didn’t know the eggs didn’t come from free-range chickens, so I ate them.)
You'd almost certainly have got the job if you'd actually applied for it! (You didn't apply for the job, so you didn't have any chance of getting it.)
If you want to be a more formal or poetic, you can take out the 'if' and start the sentence with 'had' (this is a bit old-fashioned and not really used in a casual context):
Had I had more time, I would've spent every second with you.
Had our commander not taken such swift action, we'd never have escaped with our lives!
In spoken English, third conditionals lead to a lot of double contractions, so you might hear things like I'd've, you'd've, couldn't've and wouldn't've (if you're in the southern US, you might even hear something like y'all'dn’t’ve!) These aren't normally used in written English though; it's best to just stick to one contraction.
A common mistake native English speakers make is saying or writing would of instead of would have. This is because the contraction 've sounds very similar to the preposition of.
That's all for this lesson! Feel free to message me with any questions you have or send me some third conditional sentences to mark.
