Universite d’antananarivo ecole normale superieure

I wish+ Past Simple

Conditional sentences type 2 is often used to express a wish or an ambition.

If I were President= I wish I were President.
If I went on holidays to Hawaii = I wish I went on holidays to Hawaii If I were you= I wish I were you.

The meaning is the same as above. The event is not possible to happen. It is just a wish. When we say “I wish I were you”, it is just a wish because it cannot actually happen, I will never be you.

1.1.2.4- Third conditional or conditional type three

In a third conditional sentence, the verb in the if clause is in the PAST PERFECT tense (had + past participle) whereas the verb in the main clause is in the PAST CONDITIONAL or PERFECT CONDITIONAL. (would + have + past participle)

Eg: (1) - If I had known the truth, I wouldn’t have said anything.
(2) - Ben would have passed his exam if he had worked hard.
If + S+ PAST PERFECT(had +past participle), S + PAST CONDITIONAL (would + have +past participle)
In a conditional sentence type 3, the if clause tells a condition which could have happened in the past time. This could not have been possible because the event has already happened in the past. The if clause “If I had known the truth” means that I did not know the truth, but we made a conjecture that I knew the truth. This is called unreal condition in the past. The main clause tells an event that could have happened. But, again, it could not have happened because everything has already happened in the past. Nobody can change it. In the main clause, I wouldn’t have said anything, but, of course, it is impossible because actually, I did not know the truth. So, when we use an if clause in a conditional sentence type 3, we are

referring to the past time. More precisely, we are referring to impossibilities in the past. We can add an adverb of time in the examples above:

If I had known the truth last week, I wouldn’t have said anything.

Ben would have passed his exam if he had worked hard two months ago.


Also included in the imaginative conditional relationships, the third conditional is a past counterfactual conditional. That is to say it refers to impossibilities with the reference to the past. Thus, we use the third conditional to imagine past events and their results happening differently (or unrealized situations in the past) and regrets (or dissatisfaction about the past).