The Second Conditional
If I could draw, I would be an artist.
But there's a problem. I'm not very good at drawing, so it's very unlikely that I'm going to be a professional artist in the future. It might happen, but in reality it's unlikely to take place.
When we use this type of sentence in English we refer to it as the second conditional.
The second conditional is used to talk about something that is not true or unlikely to happen. The chances of it taking place are virtually impossible, so it's improbable.
Some other examples of the second conditional are:
If she studied, she would pass her driving test.
If he inherited money, he would fly to Australia.
If I had enough money, I would buy a diamond mine.
Each of these sentences talks about things that could take place in the future but are unlikely to happen, because the condition is almost impossible or unrealistic to achieve.
But how is the second conditional formed?
The sentence structure we use to create the second conditional is:
if/when + subject + past simple + subject + would + base verb = The Second Conditional
Let's look at the sentence 'If he inherited money, he would fly to Australia.'
The word if is used at the beginning of the sentence followed by the subject (he), inherited is the past simple of the word inherit. The subject he is used again followed by the base verb fly.
Note: The term present conditional is sometimes also mentioned in the sentence structure because it describes a current event or occurrence that is not true, or is not taking place. Remember that the second conditional is used to talk about things that are unlikely to happen in the future or the present.
Here’s a short video that I made for you to watch about the second conditional.
Can you think of some more examples of when you would use the second conditional? Type your sentences into the comments below so that I can review them for you.
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