The third conditional

Finn
Hello, from a fire escape. Why am I in a fire escape? Because I got a bit lost. Sorry about that.

But while we’re here, let’s talk about some grammar. And today we’re looking at the third conditional. OK, but I know you’re a busy person. You know I’m a busy person. We don’t have time to remind ourselves that the third conditional is: if + past perfect + would + have + the past participle. We don’t have time to do that!

Instead, I’m going to give you just one thing that you need to remember if you forget everything else. One crucial tip. And I’m going to do it in 30 seconds, actually, one minute and 30 seconds, give myself a bit more time. Here it is, one minute and 30 seconds, starting now. BEEP.

The question is: when do you use the third conditional? And the answer is: when you’re talking about a past situation that didn’t happen. OK? A past situation that didn’t happen.

Right now I’m in a fire escape. Why? Because I’m lost. So in the past I didn’t pay attention. So the past situation that didn’t happen is me paying attention. So we can use a third conditional here, we can say: if I had paid attention, I wouldn’t have got lost. OK? If I had paid attention, I wouldn’t have got lost. Let’s think of one more. But, if I hadn’t got lost, I wouldn’t have found this beautiful, very beautiful number three. So, this number three… third conditional… see the connection? Hopefully this will help us remember when to use it. If I hadn’t got lost, I wouldn’t have found this number three.

And that’s it! I have nine seconds remaining. So just remember, the third conditional is for when we’re talking about a past situation that didn’t happen. Now all I need to do is find my way out of here. Erm, I’m going to go this way. See you.