Third conditional.

Third conditional.

1. The main use of the third conditional is to talk about imaginary situations in the past.

   • For example
     • If I had known the trains were cancelled, I would have taken a bus
       • There are two parts to this sentence-
         • One part is made with if plus past perfect.
         • And the other part is made of subject plus would have plus a past participle
         • You can change the order of the two parts if you like
           • I would have taken a bus, if I had known the trains were cancelled

2. And we put the two parts together to talk about an imaginary situation in the past, and its imaginary result

3. And we can use negatives in either or both parts of the sentence

   • If Abid hadn't gone to university, he wouldn't met with his wife

4. So third conditional is very useful to talk about things we're pleased we did