Normally when people think of conditionals in English
they think the zero and the first conditionals
are the easy ones and that the second and third conditionals
are the difficult ones. As we have seen in my videos about the zero and first
conditional they can be difficult! But what about
the second conditional is it easy is it difficult? Actually it's easy...
yeah... If you know what to do! My name is Toby, this is SMASH English and here
is everything you need to know about the second conditional for the B2 First
Cambridge exam!
Let's start with the basics and I mean the
very basics! Here is an example of a second conditional. If I were rich
I would buy a zebra. I so would! Imagine having a pet zebra! A minute into the
video and I'm already talking rubbish... Wheeeey! So
the grammar then is IF plus SUBJECT plus PAST SIMPLE plus SUBJECT plus WOULD
plus INFINITIVE. The grammar then is not very difficult. So why do we use the
second conditional? We use the second conditional for
imaginary present or future situations with imaginary future results.
And that's the important part! We use the first conditional for something that is
likely or probable to happen in the future.
And we use the second conditional for things that are
unlikely, improbable or impossible. In the future if I were rich
(I'm not rich) I would buy a zebra (I can't buy a zebra because I'm not rich
and my life is terrible without my baby zebra)...
Before we move on let's look at this example
one more time. If I WERE rich I would buy a zebra. Do you notice
anything strange? Maybe the WERE?
Why am I saying WERE instead of WAS? WERE here is the subjunctive.
When using a second conditional never say WAS,
and always say WERE when you need to use the verb
BE. This emphasizes that something is imaginary that something is unreal.
If you use WAS it's not wrong but WERE sounds better so WERE! Yes? Yes!
So basically what you're saying is the second conditional is easier than the
normal past simple? Yes! That is exactly what I am
saying! Like all conditionals we have two
clauses: a condition clause and a result clause.
If you want you can put the result clause before the condition clause
and it does not change the meaning. So then what are some other functions of
the second conditional? Giving advice. This is super common!
To use the second conditional to give advice
we say if I were you I would...
Toby my pet guinea pig has eaten my pet snail!
If I were you I would buy another pet snail! Toby all of my friends tell me I'm
boring! Well if I were you I would introduce them to SMASH English videos
because nobody that watches SMASH English could be boring
because SMASH English is so much fun! Why don't you watch another SMASH English
video after this video? If I were you I would!
Why not this one about phrasal verbs with GO?
Yes? Yes! I'm getting too excited... why!? We don't always need to include
"if I were you" (the condition clause). We can, if you want, just use the result
clause. Toby my girlfriend won't talk to me! Well
I would find another girlfriend then! Asking questions. We can use the second
conditional to ask questions about hypothetical situations.
To do this we start with a question word: who, what, why,
when, where, how, followed by the result clause followed by the condition clause.
For example "what would you do if you were rich?". Question word. Result.
Condition. If I were rich I would buy a pet zebra. Come on! Something more
exciting, Toby! Think about it! Where would you sleep if you were
homeless? I would sleep in the park! How would you
react if I removed my clothes? I would turn off the video! Really? Would
you? Yeah probably... Imaginary abilities.
We can replace WOULD with COULD to talk about imaginary abilities. If I
were famous I could get any girlfriend
I wanted. This doesn't mean I would, it just means I would have the
ability to. Just because you have the ability to do something
doesn't mean you will do it. For example: if
I were a professional cage fighter I could
kill you! But I wouldn't because I love you!
So much! Polite offers. We can use the first conditional for
offers. To do this we replace WILL with CAN.
I can call him if you want? I can arrange a fantastic dinner party for
your family and friends if you want? This is fine and it's polite
but we can be more polite! And to do this we use the second conditional
and replace WOULD with COULD. I could call him
if you wanted? I could arrange a fantastic dinner party for your family
and friends if you wanted? It's a bit more nervous,
a bit more tentative, a bit more "I'm not sure what your answer will be
but I want to be polite so I will make the offer
because I'm a polite wonderful guy. Formal requests. These
are great to use in formal letters and emails so remember it for part
two of the B2 First writing exam. It would be appreciated if you could
send me further details about the job.
It would be great if you could reply back as soon as possible.
I would appreciate it if you didn't shout
so much. Okay... So those are the functions. What about the grammar? Can we change the
grammar in any way? Change the tenses.
Unlike the zero and the first conditional
there are not many changes to the tenses that we can make here. If you want
you can change a past simple tense to a past continuous tense and you can
change the WOULD plus INFINITIVE to WOULD plus CONTINUOUS. For example:
If I were eating a Mcdonald's now I would be very happy. Here we have the
past continuous plus the normal WOULD plus INFINITIVE.
And we are doing this to talk about an imaginary
situation in progress. If my bus were late
I would be running to catch it now. And here we have a result clause
that is an imaginary present situation. And these are the only changes we can
make to the grammar. And this is why the second conditional
is actually much easier than the zero and the first
conditional. If you think they are easy still (which
they are not) watch my videos on the zero and first
conditional! Replace if with unless.
UNLESS means BUT NOT IF. If we use unless usually we use the
result clause first then plus UNLESS then plus the
condition clause. I wouldn't buy it unless I were very sure I wanted it.
This means I would buy it if I were very sure
that I wanted it. And now for a question! A very important question! And
to ask this question we will use the example
of the most boring conditionals in the world!
But I want you to think about the differences
in meaning between these two sentences. If you study you will pass the exam.
If you studied you would pass the exam. So we have a first conditional and a
second conditional. But what are the differences in the
meaning? Is there a difference in the meaning? Who
am I talking to? Am I even a teacher? What am I?
The first example is the first conditional. This means we are talking
about a likely future. The second example is a
second conditional. And this means we are talking about an
unlikely, improbable or impossible future.
So in the first example I'm talking to a good student.
I think it is likely that you will study and if you study
I think it's very likely that you will pass.
Well done, you! In the second example I'm talking to
a bad student! They don't study now in the present and so in the future I
think it's unlikely they will study and it is
definitely unlikely that they will pass the exam. If you watched more SMASH
English videos you would definitely pass the exam! And I think it's unlikely that
you will but you must! Please! Please! SUBSCRIBE!
Yes!? And with that we are finished! People always think that the
second conditional is so difficult but it's not! The zero
and first conditionals are hard. The second is easy and the third is...
confusing. But we will talk about that another time!
If you liked the video don't forget to SMASH that like button, subscribe if you
haven't already, leave a comment down below! My name is Toby and this
was SMASH English!