Today, we are going to talk about the confused past and present unreal conditional sentences. Along with structure formula we’ll discuss some examples to understand the concepts.
Past Unreal Conditional Structure Form
Past unreal conditionals are often used to express wishes about the past. They often show regret, or sad feelings about something that happened in the past.
The past unreal conditional sentences are also known Type 3 third conditional and are used to express fictitious situations that would have happened differently under other unreal circumstances.
The third conditional sentences contain two clauses: a main clause or “if” clause and a conditional independent clause or “would have” clause. Both clauses are grammatically independent of each other, therefore the order of the two clauses does not matter.
The main “if” clause of a past unreal conditional sentence contains a past perfect verbs and the “would have” clause contains a conditional perfect verbs.
The past unreal conditionals talk about how you would have acted in a different way if you had had more information. Therefore they usually the form of , if I had known A, I would have done B.
Imagine you prepared food for your uncle. You didn’t know it at the time, but your uncle was not coming. In this situation, you could say, “If I had known you were not coming, I would not have cooked..”
The two common formulas for past unreal conditional sentence structures are:
- “If” + subject + past perfect verb + object[s], subject + conditional perfect verb + object[s].
- Subject + conditional perfect verb + object[s] + “if” + subject + past perfect verb + object[s].
Having looked at how past unreal sentences are formed let’s look at some examples to understand the form.
Examples of Past Unreal Conditional Sentences
- Had Aric come on time, he would not miss the flight.
- Had I been there, I could have helped you.
- If Alia and Meghna had come here, they could have talked to Jane.
- Had you not been spendthrift, you could have saved some money for the rest of the month.
- If I had the money, I could have helped you.
- If Jack’s brother had visited me in the office, I could have given him all the books.
- Had I been there, I could have helped you.
- If I had met you earlier, I could have told you the fact.
- Had Monish come to the designing studio, he could have done the task.
Present Unreal Conditional Structure Form
Present unreal conditionals are also known as Type 2 second conditionals. The present unreal conditional expresses a hypothetical situation.
Present unreal conditionals make hypothetical statements then show what would happen in such situations. But in reality, the event or action did not occur.
These Sentences use “if” to make a conditional statement then expresses a imaginary end result. “If” can be used to start off a sentence or be used to join two clauses. Only “if” is used with present unreal conditionals because it is describing a fictious situation which is only imagined or in some-one’s mind.
In present unreal conditionals, the “be” form of verb in past tense “were” is used instead of “was” even with “I”, “he”, “she”, or “it”. It is considered incorrect to use “was” with these if clauses.
The two formulas for present unreal conditional sentence structures:
| If + simple past clause (fictitious condition) | Would + verb (fictitious result) |
| Would + verb (hypothetical result) | If + simple past clause (hypothetical condition) |
Examples of Present Unreal Conditional Sentences
- If I were rich, I would buy a luxury apartment.
- If I were you, I would consult a doctor.
- If I were at the book fair, I could have bought a different genre book for you.
- If I were the President, I would work for the peace of the world.
- I would buy a fortress if I had a lot of money.
- If I were a millionaire, I would donate to many charities.
- If she were a doctor, Sheila would be wealthy.
- I would donate to many charities if I were a millionaire.
- If I were a farmer, I would live in the suburbs.
- I would drive to work if I owned a car.
We hope this guide gave you a quick understanding of imaginary situations are stated using unreal conditional sentences. For more English learning resources stay tuned to EnglishBix!.
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