{"id":50743,"date":"2019-09-03T01:15:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T01:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1\/aee\/aee-1219-if-vin-and-georgia-hadnt-gone-dancing\/"},"modified":"2023-04-25T15:44:42","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T15:44:42","slug":"aee-1219-if-vin-and-georgia-hadnt-gone-dancing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allearsenglish.com\/aee-1219-if-vin-and-georgia-hadnt-gone-dancing\/","title":{"rendered":"AEE 1219: If Vin and Georgia Hadn’t Gone Dancing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In today\u2019s episode we will help demystify the third conditional in English. It doesn\u2019t have to be scary! <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start off with an example to understand our third conditional and the way it works.<\/p>\n

Hi Lindsay how\u2019s it going?<\/p>\n

M: I was in your neighborhood this weekend!<\/p>\n

L: Oh my goodness why didn\u2019t you call me?<\/p>\n

M: I thought you were out of town!<\/p>\n

L; No I wasn\u2019t. My plans were canceled.<\/p>\n

M: Oh no! If I had known you were in town I definitely would have called you. I\u2019m sorry!<\/p>\n

L: That\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n

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What did we just do? <\/strong><\/p>\n

We spoke about something that could have been different under different circumstances. <\/p>\n

Did I know you were in town? No. <\/p>\n

Am I talking about the past? Yes. <\/p>\n

This brings us to our third conditional, and we\u2019re going to look at how to use it.<\/p>\n

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Make sure you understand every word you hear on All Ears English.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bring your English to the advanced level with new vocabulary and natural expressions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Just One Change Makes A Huge Difference<\/strong><\/p>\n

Life can be so different even if one thing changes. <\/p>\n

Sometimes we all take a moment to really think about that.<\/p>\n

Today we are going to talk about this and the third conditional in English. <\/p>\n

We are still working on our series on conditionals because a listener asked about how to use them and we felt each one deserves its own episode! <\/p>\n

So here we are on the third one. <\/p>\n

Listen to this episode we did on the past perfect where we touched on the third conditional:<\/p>\n

Do Natives Actually Use the Past Perfect?<\/a><\/p>\n

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Looking At This Conditional<\/strong><\/p>\n

As with conditionals, you want to be sure to use it the right way.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s start with the structure:<\/p>\n

If + Past Perfect + Would + have + past participle  \u2014 it can be flipped a bit too<\/p>\n

So the first example we used:<\/p>\n

If I had known you were in town I definitely would have called you!<\/p>\n

Again, I was in town, but I didn\u2019t known Lindsay was there. <\/p>\n

I would have called you describes the imaginary situation that took place in the past\u2013this is the hypothetical part.<\/p>\n

So this is a great way to talk about imaginary, hypothetical situations in the past.<\/p>\n

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Proper Usage Matters Greatly<\/strong><\/p>\n

When would you use it?<\/p>\n

To talk about how life would be different if you chose a different path.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s reflection, but it\u2019s also about the hypothetical or \u201cwhat could have been\u201d type of situation too. <\/p>\n

This is really about the butterfly effect which you will likely hear a lot about.<\/p>\n

Michelle\u2019s examples from her own life:<\/strong><\/p>\n