hypothetical past situations
TRANSCRIPT
Hypothetical Past Situations
Wish/if only can be used to express wishes, regrets & criticisms about the past.
I wish I hadn’t given him my phone number
If only you’d been wearing a seat belt
Grammar
Hypothetical Past Situations The construction is as follows:
Subject + wish + subject + past perfect
I wish I hadn’t given him my phone number
If only + subject + past perfect If only you’d been wearing a seat belt
Grammar
Hypothetical Past Situations
Conditional sentences can be used to hypothesise or speculate about the past.
If you had told me you were having problems,
I could have helped you
Grammar
Grammar
Hypothetical Past Situations The construction is as follows:
CONDITIONAL CLAUSE: If + subject + past perfect
If you had told me you were having problems
MAIN CLAUSE: Subject + would / could / might + have
+ past participle
I could have helped you
Note that the order of the clauses may vary.
Grammar
Hypothetical Past Situations Look at the previous example:
If you’d told me you were having problems,
I could have helped you.
The abbreviated forms of would & had look the
same, but in the “if clause” the abbreviated “’d”
must be had.
Grammar
Hypothetical Past Situations Pronunciation Conditional and abbreviated forms are normally weak forms, therefore their pronunciation is very relaxed:
Hypothetical Past Situations A more formal alternative is to omit if and begin with had: Had she stayed longer, she would have met Brad
CONDITIONAL CLAUSE: Had + subject + past participle
Had she stayed longer
MAIN CLAUSE: Subject + would / could / might + have + past
participle
she would have met Brad
Note that the order of the clauses may vary.
Grammar
Hypothetical Past Situations
Would / might / could + infinitive can be used to describe possible present consequences.
If we had left earlier, we would be there by now
Grammar
Hypothetical Past Situations
Should have + past participle can be used to
criticise, express regret or talk about what was
supposed to happen.
It was chaos-I shouldn’t have invited some
many people
Hurry up! You should have finished that by now.
Grammar
Hypothetical Past Situations
Suppose / supposing / imagine can be used instead of if, particularly in spoken English.
Suppose he’d invited you. Would you have gone?
Grammar