Well, if you hadn t braked so hard, we wouldn t have had the accident. 2008 www.teachitworld.com 9205 Page 1 of 6
Exercise 1 Complete the sentences with one of the verbs below in the past simple, then order the sentences according to the pictures. brake break tell step rush drop shout wake hit a) Sally ran into the kitchen and... on a piece of glass. b) She... him to do the dishes. c) Sally saw a cat run across the road and... at Pete to stop. d) One day Pete was sleeping when his wife... him up. e) Her foot was badly cut so Pete... her to the hospital. f) As he was doing the dishes he... a glass and it shattered. g) He... hard and the car behind... them. h) Pete... several bones and had to stay in hospital. Exercise 2 Look at Sally's words in the last picture and decide whether the statements below are true (T) or false (F). Statement T/F a) Pete braked hard. b) Pete didn't brake hard. c) They had an accident. d) They didn't have an accident. 2008 www.teachitworld.com 9205 Page 2 of 6
Exercise 3 Look at the four sentences and complete the chart below. a) If John had come, it would have been a good party. b) If John had come, it wouldn't have been a good party. c) If John hadn't come, it would have been a good party. d) If John hadn't come, it wouldn't have been a good party. true facts a b c d John came. John didn t come. It was a good party. It wasn t a good party. Exercise 4 Complete this dialogue between Pete and Sally. (Use the verbs in exercise 1.) Sally: braked so hard, we wouldn t have had the accident. The car behind... us. Pete: Well, if you... at me, I... so hard. Sally: And if you d seen the cat, I... at you. Pete: Well, if you... on the glass, I... you to the hospital and we wouldn t have been on the road. Sally: But if you... the glass, I... on it! Pete: And if you... me to do the dishes, I... the glass! Sally: Pete: So, it's all my fault, is it? Yes, if you... me to do the dishes, we wouldn t have had the accident! 2008 www.teachitworld.com 9205 Page 3 of 6
Exercise 5 These sentences are all about the past. Change them to speculate about the past, using the third conditional. a) I had a car accident because I was tired. If I hadn't been tired,... b) My friend almost skied into a tree last year, but he saw it in time. c) I didn't see the broken glass on the ground, so I stepped on it. d) I didn't shout because I didn't see the cat. e) The ambulance arrived quickly and saved the girl s life. f) I didn't have insurance for my mountaineering vacation, so I had to pay the doctor's bills. Exercise 6 Complete the gaps using the verbs given in the third conditional form. a) I... so angry if he... me. (be, kick) b) If we... in the 1960s, we... the Twist. (live, dance) c)... they... you if you... them? (visit, invite) d) She... the job if you... her such a bad reference! (get, give) e) If I... that competition, I... a new car. (win, buy) 2008 www.teachitworld.com 9205 Page 4 of 6
TEACHER S NOTES & Key Aim: To use and practice the third conditional form. Topic: Hypothesising or speculating about the past. Lesson timings: Exercises 1 3: 25 minutes; Exercises 4 5: 10 minutes; Exercise 6: 10 minutes; Exercise 7: 10 minutes; Total: 55 minutes. Exercises 1 3 This sequence of exercises is intended to help students understand the concept of the third conditional and how this relates to its formation. The picture story sets up the situation where a third conditional sentence is immediately understandable. The highlighting of the verbs in exercise 1 is to help the students with the formation of the past perfect and modal perfect in the third conditional. This unit does not look at variations of the conditional, using might, etc., but encourage your students to use this if they already know it. These exercises should take about fifteen to twenty minutes, with a few minutes left for discussion and feedback. Exercise 1 The order is shown by the figure after the verb. a stepped 4 b told 2 c shouted 6 d woke 1 e rushed 5 f dropped 3 g braked, hit 7 h broke 8 Exercise 2 a Pete braked hard. [T] b Pete didn't brake hard. [F] c They had an accident. [T] d They didn't have an accident. [F] Draw the students' attention to the fact that the negative constructions in the third conditional refer to the fact that these actions really happened. Sally is purely hypothesising about a situation which is not true. Exercise 3 This exercise looks further at the positive/negative relationship in third conditionals. true facts A B C D John came. John didn t come. It was a good party. It wasn t a good party. 2008 www.teachitworld.com 9205 Page 5 of 6
Exercises 4 5 The two practice exercises are quite straightforward and should only take about ten minutes if the students have understood the concept and can manipulate tenses easily. Exercise 4 Sally: wouldn't have hit Pete: hadn't shouted, wouldn't have braked Sally: wouldn't have shouted Pete: hadn't stepped, wouldn't have rushed Sally: hadn't dropped, wouldn't have stepped Pete: hadn't told, wouldn't have dropped Pete: hadn't told Point out that this exercise uses negative constructions. If you have time, ask your students to make some positive constructions, for example: If you had braked more gently, we would have avoided the accident/we wouldn't have had the accident. Exercise 5 a If I hadn't been tired, I wouldn't have had the accident.[a car accident] b If my friend hadn't seen the tree [in time], he would have skied into it / he would have had a nasty accident. c If I had seen the broken glass on the ground, I wouldn't have stepped on it. d I would have shouted if I had seen the cat. e If the ambulance hadn't arrived quickly, it/they wouldn't have saved the girl s life / the girl would have died. f If I had had* insurance for the vacation[my mountaineering vacation], I wouldn't have had to pay the doctor's bills. *Point out the use of had had, and the fact that it is perfectly acceptable English. It is worth pointing out that we use commas in conditionals when the 'if clause' comes first to separate the clauses, but not usually when the main clause comes first. In short sentences the comma may be omitted. Exercise 6 You may like to use this exercise as a test. Allow only ten minutes. Give scores out of ten: one mark for each correct verb. a wouldn't have been, hadn't kicked b had lived, would have danced c Would... have visited, hadn't invited d would have got, hadn't given e hadn't won, wouldn't have bought / had won, would have bought 2008 www.teachitworld.com 9205 Page 6 of 6