Author: British Council | Published 1 December 2022
Stage 1: Present examples
Write these sentences on the board and ask. “What do you notice about the sentences?”
a) If you hadn’t spent all your money, you would be able to buy that game now.
b) If we’d looked at the map, we wouldn’t be lost now.
c) If I wasn’t afraid of spiders, I would have picked it up.
d) If I wasn’t busy, I’d have helped you with your homework.
To help learners:
- In sentence a) and b) ask: “When is the first part of the sentence talking about? (= the past).
- When is the second part of the sentence talking about? (= now).
- In sentence b), did the people look at the map? (= No). Are they lost now? (= Yes)
- In sentences c) and d), what is the timeframe of the first part of the sentence? (= now or always). When is the timeframe of the second part? (= the past).
Use L1 if necessary.
Build on their knowledge of 0-3 Conditionals.
The order of the clauses can be swapped, as with other conditional sentences.
Stage 2: Take feedback
Ask learners to share their feedback on what they noticed in the examples. Some key points you might want to share with them include:
- Mixed conditional sentences talk about impossible situations. In this way they are similar to third conditional sentences. However, in third conditional sentences both clauses are in the past. In mixed conditional sentences there are two different tenses.
| “If clause” | “Result clause” |
| If you hadn’t spent all your money (past) | you would be able to buy that game now. (present) |
| If we’d looked at the map (past) | we wouldn’t be lost now. (present) |
| If I wasn’t afraid of spiders (always true) | I would have picked it up. (past) |
| If I wasn’t busy (present) | I’d have helped you with your homework. (past) |
- In sentence a) and b) because of something either happening or not happening in the past, there is a result in the present.
- In sentence c) the condition is always true but the result is in the past
- In sentence d) something is happening now and the result is something else which can’t happen.
Stage 3: Use the grammar
a. What’s the meaning?
Write up a mixed conditional sentence and three possible meanings. Say: “Read the conditional sentence and choose the option – a, b, c – that has the same meaning. This could also be done orally.
1. If I had more time, I would have called you last night.
a) The person has lots of time, but didn’t phone.
b) The person doesn’t have a lot of time, but phoned the person anyway.
c) The person doesn’t have a lot of time, so didn’t phone.
2. If I wasn’t frightened of water, I’d be able to swim.
a) The person is frightened of water, but can swim.
b) The person is frightened of water, and can’t swim.
c) The person isn’t frightened of water, but can swim.
b. Complete the sentence
Write up the start of a mixed conditional sentence on the board and ask learners to think of three possible endings. Then say: “Share your ideas in groups.”
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