SECOND CONDITIONAL

SECOND CONDITIONAL

1. Structure

   • The second conditional is a structure used to talk about impossible or imaginary situations. If I won a lot of money I’d travel the world. Where would you live if you could live anywhere in the world? If he didn’t argue with everyone all the time, he would have a more relaxed life. To form the second conditional we use: If+past simple and would+infinitive It is not important which clause is first.

2. Examples

   • If it's a nice day tomorrow, we'll go swimming. – THIS SITUATION IS POSSIBLE. If I weren't/wasn't at work, I'd be on the beach. – THIS SITUATION IS IMAGINARY – the speaker is at work. Many conditional sentences use if + will/would. However conditional sentences can also use other words instead of 'if' – 'when' 'as soon as' 'in case'. Other modal verbs can be used instead of 'will/would' – 'can/could', 'may' 'might'.

3. Characteristics

   • Thevsecond conditional is a type of conditional that is used to talk about events that are unikely to happen in the future for situations that the speaker considers unlikely to happen in the future. If i were an astronaut

4. Definition

   • The second conditional uses the past simple after if, then 'would' and the infinitive: if + past simple, ...would + infinitive (We can use 'were' instead of 'was' with 'I' and 'he/she/it'. This is mostly done in formal writing). It has two uses. First, we can use it to talk about things in the future that are probably not going to be true. Maybe I'm imagining some dream for example.