Page 139 - Real English 2024 Book 8

DUSK

You wouldn’t be in a good temper if you were in the fix I’m in.
Unless I can find some decent chap to swallow my story and lend me some money, I seem
likely to spend the night on the bank of the Thames.

D3 Write what these situations possibly mean.

1. If it hadn’t become dark, it would have been easier to see things clearly.
2. If the young man had told the truth, people would have believed him.

3. If the gentleman had trusted him, he would have helped him.
4. If he had not got up from the seat, he would not have found the cake of soap on the ground.

5. If the elderly gentleman had come a little earlier, things would have been different.
6. If the youth had been an honest man, he would not have cheated people.

A conditional clause is a subordinate clause which refers to a situation which may exist or
whose probable consequences we are considering. Most conditional clauses begin with if or
unless.

If the gentleman considered himself smarter than the young man, he was woefully mistaken.
If you do a good deed, it will come round sometime later.
You don’t have to believe this story unless you want to.
There are three types of conditional clauses.

1. The first conditional is an open condition; it talks about possible future actions. It tells us
that something will happen if a certain condition is fulfilled. The condition may or may not
be fulfilled.

If they find out the mistake, he will be in big trouble.
(simple present . . . will/can/might)
2. The second conditional is an imaginary or improbable condition.

If she knew about his bad behaviour, she would never forgive him.
(simple past . . . would/could/might)

3. The third conditional is an unfulfilled condition; it talks about an imaginary condition in
the past. It tells us that something did not happen because a certain condition was not
fulfilled.

If the journalist had not split off from the group, he wouldn’t have been captured by the
rebels in that unknown territory.
If the prisoner had resisted, perhaps the sergeant would have shot him.
(past perfect . . . would have/could have/might have)

The third conditional is used
1. to express regret about the past.
If I had shown some good sense, things might have improved a lot.

2. to criticize others and point out their mistakes.
If the beggar had given the visitor all the grains, he wouldn’t have regretted his action.
3. to talk about things in the past happening differently from the way they really happened.

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