talkalot intermediate book 1 third conditional

Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Notes on Intermediate Verb Forms
Third Conditional = different past

Time of action:

Past.

When do we
need to use it?

To describe hypothetical actions (that didn’t happen) in the past:
- If I’d arrived a few minutes earlier, I would’ve caught the bus.
To express regrets and sorrow for having done something:
- If I hadn’t called my manager a fat pig, I could have kept my job.
Or to accuse somebody over something:
- If you’d worked harder at school, you could’ve been a doctor by now!

How is it formed?

1st clause: if + past perfect
2nd clause: would/could/might + have + past participle

Contractions in
spoken English:

I would have Ö I’d’ve L~fKÇ]îL= or I woulda L]KïrKÇ]L=
She could have Ö She could’ve Lp]KârKÇ]îL or She coulda Lp]KârKÇ]L
could / should / might = no contractions possible

Examples:
Positive Form:

If you’d booked before the twelfth, you could’ve saved fifteen percent.

Negative Form:

If you hadn’t booked before the twelfth, you couldn’t have saved…

Question Form:

If I’d booked before the twelfth, could I have saved…?

Answers:

Yes, you could (have). / No, you couldn’t (have).

Passive form:

If the room had been booked before the twelfth, you could’ve…

Used with
state verbs?

Yes, e.g. If I’d remembered to post that letter, you would have got it...

Tips:

•
•

There is no chance of this action happening – it’s impossible.
Sometimes the “if” clause is not spoken, but rather implied by
the speaker: I would’ve got you some tickets for the concert.
[i.e. “If you had asked me to, but you didn’t.”]

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