Look at this sentence:
- If Winston Churchill had died in 1974, he would have been 100 years old.
Churchill did not, in fact, die in 1974 (he died in 1965). He died before he was 100 years old. The sentence imagines something that did not happen in the past. This structure is called the Third Conditional:
If + Past Perfect, + would have / ‘d have + past participle
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Here is another example:
- If the courier had come today, I would have received my new iPhone. (The courier didn’t come today, so I didn’t receive my new iPhone.)
Notice how we can also use the negative forms wouldn’t have and hadn’t:
- Abraham Lincoln wouldn’t have died in 1865 if he hadn’t gone to Ford’s Theatre. (Lincoln died in 1865 because he went to Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C., but this sentence imagines the opposite.)
- I would have called you if my phone’s battery hadn’t died. (I didn’t phone you because my phone’s battery was not charged.)
- I wouldn’t have gone to the Post Office if I had known it was shut. (I went to the Post Office because I didn’t know it was shut.)
We can use wish + had done to talk about the past when we are sorry that something didn’t happen, and we imagine that it did:
- He wishes he had studied hard at school. (He didn’t study hard and now he’s sorry about it.)
- I wish I had bought that Fender bass guitar. It was so cheap. (I didn’t buy the bass guitar and now I’m sorry about it.)
We can use a negative form (wish … hadn’t done) to say that we are sorry that something did happen.
- I have stomach ache. I wish I hadn’t eaten so much blue cheese last night.
PRACTICE
Now it is time to practise what you have learned.
- For each Practice Test, read the instructions carefully.
- Complete the exercise and press 'Check' to get your results.
Practice Test A
Practice Test B
Practice Test C
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