Name: The third conditional - Grammar: Conditionals with Georgie
Uploaded: 2025-07-16T14:11:01.000Z
Duration: 3 min 36 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hello, this is Georgie from BBC Learning English, and

in this video, we're looking at how to imagine a different past using something called the third conditional.

I interviewed my colleagues in the office.

First, I asked them how they got to work.

I got to work today by bus and then tube.

He arrived on the underground train, the tube, but

I asked him to think back and imagine a different scenario.

What would you have done if the tube had been cancelled?

Well, if the tube had been cancelled, I would have got a bus a bit further and then got a train.

So again, Neil arrived at the office successfully on the tube because the tubes were not cancelled.

But we're imagining a hypothetical situation where the tubes were cancelled

and Neil has to imagine the consequences of that and what he would have done instead.

Now, Phil took the overground train to work, but

I asked him what he would have done if the trains had been cancelled

and Phil's response is very fast, but you've got the subtitles there to help you.

If the train had been cancelled, I would have got a different train, which takes -

which means I'd have to get two trains, and it takes about an extra 15, 20 minutes.

So usually, we shorten I would have got to woulda got, but

Phil shortens it even more to I woulda got.

So the third conditional is for imagining a different past,

which means it's useful for talking about regrets, things we wish we could change about the past.

I asked my colleagues what they regretted.

So I had a friend in primary school and now she has children, but

So, yeah, I wish that I'd stayed in touch with her.

If I'd stayed in touch with her, then I would have known her children.

It would have been nice to know her kids, but I don't.

Beth says she wishes she'd stayed in touch with her friend

because if she had stayed in touch with her friend, she would have known her children.

So we have a typical third conditional structure with an if-clause and a result clause.

And then we have this other common structure where we use wish to express that we want something to be different.

This is a regret that a lot of people probably have, but I wish I had studied harder at school.

I wish I'd traveled to more countries on my gap year.

Lastly, we can use the third conditional to blame someone for something they did.

If you told me about it, I would have been there.

George is saying that it's Andrew's fault that he didn't go to the meeting

because Andrew didn't tell George about the meeting.

Now, pause the video and think about which structures are used to make a third conditional.

In the if-clause, we use the past perfect, and

in the result clause, we use would + have + a past participle.

To recap, the third conditional is for imagining a different past.

"If the trains had been cancelled, I would have got the bus."

"If I'd had piano lessons I would have learnt how to read music."

"If you'd told me about the meeting, I would have been there."

Don't forget to check out our website and download the free worksheet to help you practice.