Third conditional - video and exercises

Good morning early birds!

Right, yesterday we briefly explained how to form the third conditional, we gave a few examples and mentioned when to use it. In case it still sounds a bit vague, and as we did with the other two types of conditionals, we are going to show you a video with the exaplanation today and then we will leave you with a pdf document for you to practise and do some homework.

Below you can watch a whole video explaining the third conditional with a few examples. By clicking on the video itself, you will be able to watch it all on their official youtube channel:

Credit: Third Conditional. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 8 December 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuUkuORtfE0

Remember, we use the third conditional for situations that happened in the past and we cannot change anymore. Having a look at the first example of the video:

If he hadn't been late, he wouldn't have lost his job.

As you can observe, he had been late for work many times, so he used to be late for work. Consequently, he lost his job, they fired him. However, he cannot change that result, it happened and now... he regrets.

Once you have fully understood the third conditional structure, use and examples, click on the image below and do that worksheet for the 16th of December please.

By NeoMeesje - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45817942

Have a nice day, and start getting ready for Christmas!

Talk soon,

Pablo.

The third conditional

Welcome back, children!

This week we are going to study the third conditional in English. We already saw the first and the second conditional, so if you would like to refresh or revise them have a look at the previous posts.

Now, the third conditional, when do we use it?

We use the third conditional for talking about hypothetical situations in the past. In general, we use this tense for regretting that something happened or didn't happen in the past.

For example, imagine you had an English test a week ago, but you didn't study and you failed it. In this case, you could find yourself saying:

If I had studied, I would have passed...

Thus, you are talking about something that happened in the past but that you CANNOT CHANGE it anymore. In this case, you are somehow regretting that you hadn't studied enough.

Let's see another example:

I would have bought you a present if I had known it was your birthday...

Here, I did not know it was your birthday, so I regret it. If I had known, though, I would have got you something: maybe some flowers, maybe some chocolate... who knows? But what matters here is that I did not know it was your birthday, so I CANNOT CHANGE the past. I can only regret about it!

Now, what about the structure?

As always, you have two clauses:

Conditional clause: If I had studied - If + subject + had + past participle main verb

Result clause: I would have passed - subject + modal verb (would, could, might, may) + have + past participle

As we know, we can invert the clauses, and we would need to get rid of the comma:

I would have passed if I had studied.

Have a look at the following story from the British Council website in order to fully understand the context in which you can find or use the third conditional in English.

Credit: Third conditional. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 7 December 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNelekMirTI

That's it for today,

Pablo.

Second Conditional - Videos and exercises

Heyo,

Yesterday we talked and explained the second conditional. We said when to use it, what is its structure and we showed a ppt from slideshare to give you some food for thought.

Today, as we did with the first conditional, I am going to show you some videos and examples for illustrating better the second conditional, so you can do some homework afterwards.

Nevertheless, to begin with I would like to specify something. When we stated the structure of the second conditional, we said the result clause needed to be made with the conditional tense using would. However, you can also use "might, may or could", as the videos you are going to watch now will say.

For example: 

If he ate healthy food, he could lose weight.

In this case, the result clause "he could lose weight" is made using the modal verb "could" plus the infinitive of the main verb, "lose".

For understanding better these examples, please have a look at these two videos with their credit:

Learn the English Second Conditional - English Classes. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 6 December 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry3xEVEiF-0

Second conditional. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 6 December 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEwcIsTKBU4

Finally, I am going to leave here some exercises for you to practise how to form the second conditional clauses. This HOMEHORK is for the 15th of December. Access the pdf by clicking on the following image please:

By Alex Proimos from Sydney, Australia - Doing Homework, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25648511

Have a good day ahead,

Pablo.

The second conditional

Good afternoon,

I hope you are all having a nice week. It is being rainy and cold outside, but I love it! It reminds me of my time in England...

Anyway, I wanted to talk today about the second conditional. Firstly, when do we use it?

We use the second conditional to talk about something that is not very likely to happen. If you remember well, the first conditional expresses a high posibility or chance of something to occur. Meanwhile for the first conditional the percentage was around 90% of the situation to happen, in this case we are talking about a 10% or even less. Then, we can state that we use the second conditional for talking about hypothetical situations. 

Let's see an example. In Spanish, for expressing this type of condition, you would say something like this: "si ganase la lotería, dejaría mi trabajo", which in English would be "if I won the lottery, I would quit my job". As you know, there is not a big chance of winning the lottery, but it might still happen. In that case, then, we use the second conditional.

How is the structure? As we mentioned in previous posts, there are two clauses:

Clause number 1: the condition, which you make with "if + verb in past simple"

Clause number 2: the result, which you make with the conditional simple tense (would).

In the example we saw before, first we have the condition "If I won the lottery" and later the result "I would quit my job", both separated by a comma. Remember that if you do not want to use the comma, you will need to invert the clauses, as it follows:

If I won the lottery, I would quit my job (with a comma)

OR

I would quit my job if I won the lottery (without comma)

It is also worth to mention that with the second conditional we use after the preposition "if" the subjunctive form of the verb to be with the personal pronouns I, he, she, it. That means that we use the form "were" instead of "was". For example, when giving advice to someone:

If I were you, I would buy the red car.

instead of:

If I was you, I would buy the red car.

Understood? Yes? Well, I would like you to have a look at the following power point presentation from slideshare and think about what you would do in those situations... For answering, you will need to reply to the questions (orally) using the second conditional! This HOMEWORK is for the 12th of December.

PS: remember to click on the image to be redirected to the ppt!

De CoRegistros - http://coregistros.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46900419 

Peace,

Pablo.

First conditional - video and exercises

Good afternoon children,

If you remember well, last week we saw how the first conditional works in terms of structure and when to use it. 

Today, instead, we have a much more exciting post, in which you will be able to watch a video with an explanation about the first conditional (in case there are still some doubts or questions) and a pdf document with some exercises for you to practise at home.

Below you can watch the full video. If you click on it, you will be able to watch it better on youtube. And the reference of the video is:

First Conditional - Tutor Time (English Grammar). (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 4 December 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ifCM8kJFKI

Remember, we use the first conditional for situations or results that are likely to happen, when the probability is, let's say, 90%. Having a look at the first example of the video:

If I study hard, I will pass the test.

If I study hard = condition

I will pass the test = result

As you can see, the chance is not 100% of it to happen, but approximate, since it is very likely to pass an exam if you have studied really hard before.

Once you have totally understood the first conditional structure, use and examples, try to click on the image below and do the HOMEWORK for the 8th of December please.

By woodleywonderworks - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/4195916777/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31830988

Have a nice Sunday,

Pablo.

The English Student BLOG

Good morning!

Today I woke up really excited. Last night I discovered an awesome website for English learners and, why not, for teachers too. I am a freak and a big fan of art, specially when it comes to illustration and painting (although I do not do it myself).

So, surfing the internet I came up with this website called "The English Student" a fantastic page with wonderful resources for teaching and learning English, with the advantage that they all look great!

The story behind the blog of Jenny Kung, the author, is here: (click on the image!)

On the blog there are different sections, but make sure you have a look at the illustrations and the blog section itself. There are resources you can download for free, meanwhile others ask for a small amount of money, and they tend to go from 1$ to 5$. Anyway I think the best way of discovering something is trying it on your own, so feel free to click on the image below (one of Jenny's great illustrations) and yeap, enjoy!

Credit from this picture to https://www.theenglishstudent.com/, which you can also find on Twitter on @TheEngStudent

Spread the love,

Pablo.