Douglas Adams
|
|
|
Editor: Douglas Adams |
|
|
|
Past Unreal Conditionals The basic formula for a past unreal conditional has the past perfect or past perfect continuous in the dependent clause and a modal [usually would, could, should, or might] plus what appears to be the present perfect [though it's always have plus the past participle verb] in the independent clause as can be seen in the diagram below. 
Like advice modals in the past, the past unreal conditional is usually used to express blame, regret or possibility as can be seen in the examples below. Last night Tom was driving too fast and he had an accident. - If he had driven more slowly, he would not have crashed into the McBurger restaurant. ...or... If he had been paying more attention, he could have avoided the accident. Saying these things to Tom or about him doesn't change what happened to him. The accident happened in the past and the past is gone, so driving more slowly or avoiding the accident are not going to happen. They are completely unreal. At its heart these past unreal conditionals are just a way to blame Tom for doing something stupid. Let's look at another example, Tom was eating his lunch on the roof of McBurger when he slipped and fell off. - Tom might have broken his neck if he had not landed in the dumpster. Tom did not break his neck because he did land in the dumpster, but there was the possibility of neck breakage. The past unreal conditionals face some of the same issues with would, could, like and prefer that we find in the present unreal. If Tom would have just eaten more slowly, he would not have tossed his cookies. - [ok in some parts of the southern U.S., but not on the TOEFL] ...or with could... If Tom could have eaten more burgers, he would have (eaten more burgers). ...with would like/prefer... If he would have preferred a bigger burger, the restaurant would have made him one. I find it helpful to let students know about these special cases, so they can see some of the forms they might hear on the street and it also helps them to make connections with the same patterns in the present unreal and better see conditionals as an organized system. Past Unreal Practice Exercise: As with the present unreal, a good production-based way for students to practice the past unreal conditional is by creating a list of ten short situations and asking students to make past unreal conditionals [using the past perfect & past perfect continuous forms] about the situations. It takes a little imagination, but makes the practice much more interesting for the students. For example... Tom has an eating problem. One day he saw an ad on the internet for a product that was supposed to make his problem better. It cost $75, but after he used it for the first time, he woke up under a bridge and couldn't remember the last 72 hours. simple form = continuous form = * I recommend telling them to make different sentences for the two forms. [After all, the extra practice will help them.] back to the beginning.... present real conditionals |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
http://www.tesltimes.org |
