Welcome to our grammar lesson on the third conditional. The third conditional is used to talk about hypothetical situations in the past that did not happen. For example, “If I had studied harder, I would have passed the exam.” In this lesson, we will learn how to form and use the third conditional.

To form the third conditional, we use “if” followed by the past perfect tense, which is “had” plus the past participle of the verb, and then “would have” plus the past participle of the main verb. For example, “If she had practiced more, she would have won the competition.” For negative sentences in the third conditional, we simply add “not” to the “would have” part of the sentence. We can also use the contraction “wouldn’t” instead of “would not.” For example, “If he hadn’t overslept, he wouldn’t have missed the meeting.”

To form questions in the third conditional, we begin with “would,” followed by the subject, “have,” and the past participle of the main verb. Then we add “if” and the past perfect tense. For example, “Would you have gone to the party if you had been invited?”

In the third conditional, it’s common to use contractions to make the sentences more natural and conversational. For example, instead of saying “they would have,” we can say “they’d have.” Here’s an example: “If they’d known about the surprise, they’d have kept it a secret.”

In the third conditional, we can also use other modal verbs like “could” and “might” instead of “would” to express different degrees of certainty. For example, “If I had known about the sale, I might have bought a new dress.” This shows that it was a possibility but not a definite action.

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