Third Conditional (Type III)
The third conditional (also called conditional type 3) is a structure used for talking about unreal situations in the past. In other words, it is used to talk about things which DID NOT HAPPEN in the past. Type 3: if + past perfect + perfect conditional (would/should+have+ParticipleII)
Full form : If I had studied harder, I probably would have passed the exam.
Contracted form :If I'd studied harder, I probably would've passed the exam.
Example:
If I had had the money, I would have bought this Audi. (But I did not have it, and so did not buy).
If you had driven more carefully, you would not have had an accident. (You had an accident because you didn't drive carefully enough.)If we had played a little better, we could have won the game.(We didn't play well, so we lost the game.) The action in type 3 is characterized by impossibility.While type 1 and type 2 focus on the present or future, the time in type 3 is the past and signifies a completed action in the past. The condition, therefore, cannot be fulfilled because the action in the if-clause did not happen.
5. Wish Sentences
The verb wish expresses a desire for a situation that does not exist right now in the present. A wish is a desire to change a real situation into an unreal one. The unreal situation is expressed in the simple past. For example:
I wish I lived in a house. I live in an apartment.
Wish sentences often express regret about a situation that you would like to change e.g.
A:Can you help me? B: No, I'm sorry. I wish I could, but I have an appointment.
In order to express future actions that you want to happen , you use would e.g.
I wish the bus would come. I'm cold. I wish I were thin. I wish I hadn't said that. (If fact, I said it)
40. Speak on the uses of the Past Perfect and Past Perfect Progressive(=Continuous)
The past perfect is formed analytically by the auxiliary to have in the past indefinite (had) and participle II (Verb in the 3rd form) of the notional verb.
In all its uses the past perfect denotes actions, the beginning of which (always) and the end (usually) precede a certain moment of time in the past. The prepast period of time to which the actions in the past perfect refer is unlimited, that is, they may take place either immediately before some moment in the past or in the very remote past.
The past perfect is used:
1. To denote an action of which both the beginning and the end precede some moment of time in the past. This moment can be specified by an adverbial of time, or by another action, or else by the situation.
He had finished his work by then.
I knew him a little: we had met in Rome a year before.
2. To denote an action in progress which began before a certain moment of time in the past and went on up to that moment and sometimes into it. In such cases either the starting point of the action is specified (by means of the adverb since, a prepositional phrase with since or an adverbial clause introduced by the conjunction since), or the period during which the action was in progress (by various adverbials):
a) with statal verbs, which do not normally allow of continuous forms:
He had been away for some months before his first letter came.
They had thought it over and over again since that dinner.
b) with some actional durative verbs (in the similar way as with the past perfect continuous).
When we first met she had lived in the country for two years and was quite happy.
In this case the past perfect continuous can also be used, though with a slight difference of meaning: while the past perfect lays the stress on the mere fact that the action took place, the past perfect continuous accentuates the duration of the action.
3. To denote a succession of past actions belonging to the time preceding the narrative as a whole, thus describing a succession of events in the prepast time.
I gave a slight shiver. In front of me was a neat square of grass and a path and the low gate. Someone had opened the gate, had walked very correctly and quietly up to the house, and had pushed a letter through the letter-box.
The past perfect continuous is formed analytically by means of the auxiliary to be in the past perfect (had been) and participle I (Verb+-ing) of the notional verb.
The past perfect continuous denotes an action which began before a given moment in the past, continued for a certain period of time up to that moment and possibly still continued at that past moment.
The moment of time in the past before which the action begins is usually indicated by other past actions in the past indefinite or by the past continuous. Sometimes it is indicated directly by adverbials (by that time, by the 1st of August, etc.).
The past perfect continuous is used with actional verbs to denote:
1. Actions in progress that began before a certain moment of time in the past and continued up to that moment, but not into it. As a rule no indications of time are present: the exact time of the beginning of the action is more or less clear from the situation, while the end, closely precedes the given moment of past time (the exclusive past perfect continuous).
Dick, who had been reading aloud Pit’s letter, suddenly stopped.
2. Actions in progress that began before a certain moment of time in the past and continued into it. In this case either the starting point of the action or its duration is indicated (the inclusive past perfect continuous).
Ever since his return he had been losing strength and flesh.