Hello and welcome to go natural English
I'm your American English teacher Gabby and today we are going to clarify
demystify even master one of the most difficult
confusing frustrating English tenses
that is these seconds conditional grammar tense in English for many of you you might feel like
Avoiding this tense because it can be quite confusing
We use it in many different ways. But today I'm going to show you with a quick and clear explanation
How to form the second conditional grammar tense how to use it and when to use it because we do use it in several different
situations it's like a
Multi-use tool to express yourself in English
I'm also going to share several examples that will help you to show you how we use it and at the end
of this episode
I am going to share a resource that will help you to greatly improve your English fluency
So if that sounds good, then let's begin
Now I'm also going to ask you to answer some questions to leave a comment on
This video with your own examples and answers to my questions. Ok. Here we go
so the second conditional is formed like other conditionals we start with if
Then we have the simple past tense. That's the first part of the sentence
The second conditional has a second part which is would plus the infinitive form of the verb
But remember after would we do not need to include the two before the verb?
So it's really just a base verb after would
Let me share the three ways that we use the second conditional and then show you some examples first
We use the second conditional to talk about in
probability future
Improbability we often use this to talk about situations related to money
for example, if
I had a lot of money I would
Travel all the time
That's an example of a future
improbability in this example
I don't believe that I will have a lot of money. So it's improbable. Maybe it's possible
But not probable
there's maybe a
1% chance that I believe that I will have a lot of money and so it's quite
Doubtful that I will actually experience this lifestyle where I would travel every single day another example
if I
Won the lottery I would
buy a mansion
Again, this is an example of an improbable future where I don't really believe that I'm going to win the lottery
But it's not
Completely impossible. I mean it would be nice right, but maybe I have a
1% chance of winning the lottery. It's not probable. Ok, so I want to invite you to share your own
Example to practice because the way to fluency is through using English
so let's practice if you're watching here on YouTube leave a comment with your own example of
improbable future situation so you can even start with the same way that I did like if I won the lottery
Or if I had a lot of money or if I had a million dollars
What would you do the second way that we use the second conditional is to talk about present
impossibility
Something that is not possible in the present moments. So let me share an example to clear this up
if I knew
Your birthday I would
Send you a birthday present
So, I don't know your birthday and therefore I can't send you a birthday present
If I knew your birthday, I would
And you a birthday present?
So it's presently impossible for me to send you a birthday present because I don't know your birthday
But I'm saying I'm expressing that perhaps I would like to send you a birthday present
If I knew your birthday, so tell me in the comments
When is your birthday? I would love to know and
Extra points for anyone who has the same birthday as I do
February 24
Now we've come to the third use of the second conditional now
This is my favorite use of the second conditional because it's to share your opinion to give
Suggestions and perhaps to persuade people so this is fun. We use it
Often by starting with if I were you
I'm sure you've heard this before if I were you I
would
Let's fill in the blank with an example
If I were you
I would leave a comment sharing your example here on the YouTube video or I
would leave a
comment on the go natural English blog post at gonaturalenglish.com
2nd - conditional if I were you I would study harder if I were you I would practice
More English if I were you, well, I'll let you fill in the blank
Tell me what you would do if you were me
now, of course we can use other kinds of
examples to share our opinion we could say for example if I
were
Your age I would
You might hear older people using this talking about someone. Who's younger
So for example if I were a teenager or if I were a college student
I would study
computer science
Absolutely without a doubt it is true. So
these are three ways that you can use the second conditional again to express an improbable future an
impossible
presence or a
suggestion to express your opinion
so
I hope that this helped to demystify the second conditional tense and to help you to express yourself more in English
Now I want to share a free resource with you to help you to improve your English fluency and your confidence
Faster, you can get a free sample of my popular audio ebook the English fluency
formula by visiting gonaturalenglish.com
slash free in the next lesson
We are going to explore the third conditional tense the final conditional tense in the English language
We have four of them
If you didn't catch me explaining the zero or the first conditional tenses
Make sure you check those out YouTube family
You can click right up there to check out the zero and the first conditional lessons right now
Next lesson we're going to dive into the third
Conditional I am so excited to help you out with these conditional tenses I get excited about
Explaining grammar because I know it's going to help you to be a more confident
Speaker of English you are doing a great job with your English Studies
Keep in mind that if you make mistakes, it's okay mistakes are part of learning and growing
So don't be afraid to get out there and start using the grammar that you're learning today
Even if you make a mistake that's part of it. So let's go. Let's try it out. Make sure to subscribe
to go natural English on the gue natural English YouTube channel or on the podcast if
You want to learn English? You don't want to miss a lesson. Click right down there to subscribe now
Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time. Bye for now