Welcome to Part 3 of our three-part grammar guide to The Second Conditional! If you’ve missed the earlier videos in this series, we suggest that you can click the links to go back and watch Part 1 or Part 2 here first.
Transcript
Today: The Second Conditional – Part 3: Results with Modal Verbs.
To review the structure of the second conditional and how to use it with the verb be, check out Parts 1 and 2.
Let’s look at an example second conditional sentence:
- If I won the lottery, I would buy you a house.
Would is used to express certainty. I would definitely buy you a house if I won the lottery.
Could expresses ability:
- If I won the lottery, I could buy you a house. (I would be able to buy you a house).
Might expresses possibility:
- If I won the lottery, I might buy you a house. That is, possibly. Maybe. I might buy you a house.
The modal verbs most often used in second conditional results are: would, wouldn’t, might, mightn’t, could, and couldn’t. Generally speaking, we avoid all other modal verbs.
Examples
Let’s look at a few other examples:
- If we had a car, we could go to the beach this weekend. But we don’t, so we can’t.
- I miss you so much! If you were here, we could go to the concert together.
- If I lost my job, we couldn’t afford to live here anymore. We’d have to downgrade to something smaller.
- Don’t judge that man so negatively. If you were in his shoes, you might see things differently.
- Paul, wake up! If you studied a little harder, you might get better grades.
OK, guys. Practice time! Try to make your own sentences and write them in the comments section below. See you next time!
Keep up-to-date on all of our latest content by subscribing to our social media channels: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram.
Leave a Reply