Third Conditional

Third Conditional

1. The third conditional is used to express the past consequence of an unrealistic action or situation in the past.

   • Example
     • If he had studied harder, he would have passed the exam.
       • The first action (studying hard) did not happen. But in the case that he happened, the consequence was passing the exam. The third conditional is very similar to the second conditional. But while the second conditional refers to something unrealistic now or in the future, the third conditional refers to something unrealistic in the past.

2. The third conditional to express regrets – describing things we are sorry happened or didn’t happen.

   • Example
     • If my alarm had gone off, I wouldn’t have been late to work.
       • If there hadn’t been so much traffic we wouldn’t have missed our flight

3. To make a sentence in the third conditional, we use:

   • If + past perfect, would/wouldn’t have + past participle.
     • Example
       • If you had told me about the meeting, I would have come.
         • If you had told me ab.out the meeting, I wouldn’t have missed it
   • As with all conditionals, you can also invert this structure:
     • Would have + past participle if + past perfect.
       • Example
         • I’d have come to the meeting if you’d told me about it.
           • I wouldn’t have missed the meeting if you’d told me about it.

4. The word would is often contracted to ‘d by native speakers. It’s also acceptable to use this in informal writing. And in speech it’s common to contract have to ‘ve in the third conditional.