Curso First Certificate Exam

LOS CURSOS DE INGLES GRATIS PREFERIDOS POR LOS HISPANOHABLANTES

 

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Conditional sentences - Part 3

 

 

THREE POINTS TO REMEMBER

Sometimes we want to talk about things that did not happen in the past. We want to imagine how things might have been different.

Please, remember these 3 basic rules:

1

When both the clauses refer to the 'past', we use the following verb forms:

MAIN CLAUSE  ► would + have + past participle
The history of eastern Europe would have been different if Karl Marx hadn't been born.

IF-CLAUSE  ► had + past participle (past perfect)
If Kennedy hadn't gone to Dallas, he wouldn't have been killed.
 

2

When the main clause refers to the 'present', we use the following verb form:

MAIN CLAUSE  ► would + infinitive (conditional)
Germany would be two countries if the Berlin Wall hadn't come down.
 

3

When we are not certain about what would have happened in a different situation, we can use 'might' instead of 'would':

MAIN CLAUSE  ► might (instead of 'would') + infinitive
If Lee Harvey Oswald hadn't been killed, we might know for certain who killed John F. Kennedy.

Below, you will find an activity to practise this grammar.
 

Conditional sentences

ACTIVITY 211: Put the verbs in red in the correct form. If necessary, refer to Mr. Grammar's explanatins above. Then check the answers.

1.

If Marie Antoinette   (NOT MARRY) Louis XVI,
she   (NOT LOSE) her head.

2.

Shakespeare   (NOT WRITE) plays if he   (NOT BE) an actor.

3.

If Pierre and Marie Curie   (NOT DO) research into radioactivity, they   (NOT WIN) the Nobel prize in 1903.

4.

If sixteenth century explorers   (NOT BRING) tobacco from the Americas to Europe, fewer people   (SMOKE) today.

5.

Russia   (NEVER BECOME) an important European power, if Peter the Great   (NOT MODERNISE) the country at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

6.

People   (KNOW) less about our modern world
if television   (NOT INVENT).

Parece que vas progresando en oraciones condicionales !!! 
 En la próxima página continuarás la práctica de LISTENING COMPREHENSION por medio de dos interesantes audios acerca del asesinato de John Fitzgerald Kennedy ...
 

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