Mixed conditional sentences Form Pe isciuse | Maincure | rst If present simple will + infini conditional without to If it rains, the drought will end. second If past simple woulalcouldimight + conditional infinitive without to Ifeveryone used their own shopping bags, there wouldn't be so much plastic waste. Third It+ past perfect would/could/miaht conditional have.4.past participle If they had saved more water, there wouldn't have been a drought. Mixed second if + past simple would have + past fend thitd le oeceeeren ‘partaple conditional imaginary situation ““Fypothetical result in past If the policy worked, the government wouldn't have needed extra food. Mixed third If + past perfect would/couldimight + and second infinitive without to conditionals ‘if the water hadn't been stored, there wouldn't be a harvest this yey. Remember, we can use ifin two positions: + Ifclause first: I/we use less water, we should be able to provide enough for the whole population,water for the zohole population if we use less water. When the if-clause is at the beginning of the sentence, we use a comma to separate it from the main clause. Use First conditional We use the first conditional to talk about a possible future action or situation. We can also use it to talk about things that are generally true. t’s possible that they will pollute the water in the fature. Then we won't be able to drink the water.) Second conditional We use the second conditional to talk about unreal or imagined (hypothetical) situations in the present or future, Ifthey changed their environmental views, perhaps they ‘would get the contract. (This is an imagined situation in the future.) Note that when we use the past simple with if, it refers to the present or future. It does not refer to the past. ‘We can also use could and might instead of would in the main clause. We use could or might to talk about events that are possible but not certain. If you visited the polluted region, you could see the contamination quite clearly. Fossil fuels might not run out if people didn't use scarce resources. Third conditional We use the third conditional to talk about situations or events in the past that did not happen and the hypothetical consequence or result of the imagined past situation, If they had built the dam, those villages wouldn’t have flooded. (But they didn't build the dam and the villages were flooded.) We can use could/might (not) have to speculate ona possible consequence of the imagined past situation If they had built the dam, those villages might not have {floxded. (They did build the dam, and it’s possible that the villages wouldn’t have been flooded but we are not certain.)Wuxea conartionals We use mixed conditionals to talk about unreal situations when the if clause and the main clause don’t refer to the same time. We use mixed second and third conditionals to talk about an imagined situation in the present or future with the hypothetical past result or consequence. If the pro-forest organisation didn’t exist, more of the Amazon forests would have disappeared. (But the organisation does exist, and so more of the Amazon forests didn’t disappear.) ‘We use mixed third and second conditionals to talk about an imagined situation or action in the past, with the imagined consequence in the present or future. If the activists hadn't intervened, the Amazon would be much smaller now. (But the activists did intervene, so the Amazon is bigger than it would have been without their help.)