IB Docs (2) Team
TASKS 3rd Conditional
Discussing what might have been ...
Thinking about the way things might have been if... can be an entertaining game of speculation, but it is also an important aspect of judging the past. It is intriguing to think about what would have happened if Columbus' ship had sunk, or if Lee Harvey Oswald had missed President Kennedy ... but it is actually useful to ask what would have happened if climate change had been noticed thirty years earlier, or if more regulation had been applied to subprime mortgages before the crash of 2008.
So exercising the rather complicated structures of the Third Conditional benefits not only your command of lesser-known bits of the language, but also your ability to think clearly about extended chains of cause and effect.
To place the Third Conditional in context, let's review the usual list of Conditional structures ...
The Conditional structures
(0) 'Basic' - IF (present)..., + (present)...
If it rains, people get wet
If there is enough rain, plants grow properly
(1) 'First' - IF (present)..., + (future)...
If it rains, we will get wet
(2) 'Second' - IF (past)..., + ('would)...
If it rained, we would get wet
(3) 'Third' - IF (past perfect)..., + ('would have')...
If it had rained, we would have got wet
... and let's also review why we have these structures - what purposes they serve in transmitting meaning:-
Functions of Conditionals - their basic conceptual purposes
Basic - general logical result
... the condition/situation (always) leads to the consequence
First - specific projections & plans
... probable future situations (clearly) lead to probable consequences
Second - options and possibilities
... situations you can imagine (conceivably) lead to imaginable consequences
Third - 'roads never taken'
... situations that did not happen and their (likely, arguable, hypothetical) consequences
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Task #A - exercising the structure
> Do the following online quiz. It's generated from the qBank - so the questions change every time you open this page!
3rd Conditional quiz
If my parents ...... to move to Russia, I would have had to learn Russian.
Notice that 'had decided' is necessary to emphasis that this is an alternative in the past.
If we ...... earlier, we would have got better tickets.
Notice that the use of the past perfect 'had booked' (1) makes clear that the booking started before getting the tickets; and (2) combined with 'would have', it makes clear that this is an 'impossible' alternative - in fact, we didn't book early.
If there ...... more queens than kings in history, how would history have been changed ?
Notice how 'there had been' is the conditional equivalent of the 'there is' structure.
If his family hadn't been so rich, he ....... a chance of becoming President.
Notice particularly the wrong answers - these are common mistakes in this structure.
If she ...... her revision properly, she wouldn't have failed the exams.
Note that 'wouldn't have failed' clearly shows that she has already failed the exams, so we talking about the past, not any future possibility.
It ...... better if you had asked me for help right at the start.
Notice particularly the wrong answers - these are common mistakes in this structure.
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Task #B - Writing
> Choose one of the following topics, and write a text exploring the idea. You should, of course, try to use the 3rd Conditional structure as much as you can.
"If your parents had decided to move to ...(Australia / Chile / Mongolia, etc) - how would your life have changed?"
"If you had been born ten years earlier, how do you think your life would have changed?"
"If your parents had had five more children, would they have treated you differently?"
"If you had been born a (girl / boy), how would your childhood have been different?"
** (Careful! Notice the difference if we phrase the question like this: "If you had been born a (girl / boy), would your life be different ?" - the answers here are going to be in the Second: "Yes - I wouldn't like football (now)...")
"If you hadn't been born when you were born, but had been born in some other period of history, when would you like to have been born ?"
**And once you've answered that one, you can develop the ideas even more by trying this question -
"If you had been born then, what would your life have been like?" (leading to detailed exploration)
"If there had been more queens than kings in history, how would history have been different?"
**(This one is likely to lead to 'mixed tenses' - such as "Women are not as aggressive as men so there would have been fewer wars". Which is probably fine, because the concepts involved require such combination of tenses.)
"If you had been born in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus Christ, what would you have thought of him?"
"If you had had the chance of meeting Christ, what would you have asked him?"
**(Or, if you like, choose any other well-known or significant person in history, and apply the same questions)
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