Conditionals
Explanation and examples, with an exercise that marks itself. Free, no signup.
The third conditional talks about a past that did not happen. The mixed conditional joins a past condition to a present result, or the other way round. Both are markers of a higher level of English.
Form: if + past perfect, would have + past participle.
If I had studied harder, I would have passed.
If they had left earlier, they would not have missed the flight.
Everything in a third conditional is unreal. I did not study harder, and I did not pass. It is used for regret, criticism and imagining alternatives to a finished situation.
Would can be replaced by might or could to soften the claim: if I had studied harder, I might have passed.
Would have never belongs in the if clause.
Wrong: If I would have known, I would have called.
Right: If I had known, I would have called.
This error is common in speech in some varieties of English, but it is marked wrong in exams.
A mixed conditional joins the two halves across time. There are two useful patterns.
Past condition, present result. If + past perfect, would + verb.
If I had taken that job, I would be living in Singapore now.
If she had not missed the deadline, she would have a place on the course.
Present condition, past result. If + past simple, would have + past participle.
If I were more organised, I would not have forgotten the meeting.
If he spoke Japanese, he would have understood the announcement.
Ask when the condition sits and when the result sits. If both are in the past, you want the third conditional. If they sit in different times, you want a mixed one. The tense in each half follows its own time, which is why the pattern looks broken at first and is not.
Answer the questions, then check your work. Nothing is sent anywhere and there is nothing to sign up for.
Yes. Every page here is open, with no account to create and nothing to pay. The site is paid for by advertising.
It is written for general English learners, so it suits anyone working at or near that level.
This site covers PTE, TOEFL, TOEIC and OET, and general English by CEFR level. IELTS has its own site, IELTSforFREE.
Where free stops
Everything on this site is open, and for reading, listening, grammar and vocabulary that is enough: they have right answers, so you can check them yourself.
Writing and speaking are judged against criteria rather than checked against a key, which is why no free page can score them. If you are taking IELTS, IELTStestONLINE assesses both against the four IELTS criteria, using a system built by a former examiner and examiner trainer.
See how that works