The EASY Second Conditional - English Grammar for B2 First (FCE)

Normally when people think of conditionals in English they think the zero and the first conditionals are the easy ones and that the second and third conditionals are the difficult ones. As we have seen in my videos about the zero and first conditional they can be difficult! But what about the second conditional is it easy is it difficult? Actually it's easy... yeah... If you know what to do! My name is Toby, this is SMASH English and here is everything you need to know about the second conditional for the B2 First Cambridge exam! Let's start with the basics and I mean the very basics! Here is an example of a second conditional. If I were rich I would buy a zebra. I so would! Imagine having a pet zebra! A minute into the video and I'm already talking rubbish... Wheeeey! So the grammar then is IF plus SUBJECT plus PAST SIMPLE plus SUBJECT plus WOULD plus INFINITIVE. The grammar then is not very difficult. So why do we use the second conditional? We use the second conditional for imaginary present or future situations with imaginary future results. And that's the important part! We use the first conditional for something that is likely or probable to happen in the future. And we use the second conditional for things that are unlikely, improbable or impossible. In the future if I were rich (I'm not rich) I would buy a zebra (I can't buy a zebra because I'm not rich and my life is terrible without my baby zebra)... Before we move on let's look at this example one more time. If I WERE rich I would buy a zebra. Do you notice anything strange? Maybe the WERE? Why am I saying WERE instead of WAS? WERE here is the subjunctive. When using a second conditional never say WAS, and always say WERE when you need to use the verb BE. This emphasizes that something is imaginary that something is unreal. If you use WAS it's not wrong but WERE sounds better so WERE! Yes? Yes! So basically what you're saying is the second conditional is easier than the normal past simple? Yes! That is exactly what I am saying! Like all conditionals we have two clauses: a condition clause and a result clause. If you want you can put the result clause before the condition clause and it does not change the meaning. So then what are some other functions of the second conditional? Giving advice. This is super common! To use the second conditional to give advice we say if I were you I would... Toby my pet guinea pig has eaten my pet snail! If I were you I would buy another pet snail! Toby all of my friends tell me I'm boring! Well if I were you I would introduce them to SMASH English videos because nobody that watches SMASH English could be boring because SMASH English is so much fun! Why don't you watch another SMASH English video after this video? If I were you I would! Why not this one about phrasal verbs with GO? Yes? Yes! I'm getting too excited... why!? We don't always need to include "if I were you" (the condition clause). We can, if you want, just use the result clause. Toby my girlfriend won't talk to me! Well I would find another girlfriend then! Asking questions. We can use the second conditional to ask questions about hypothetical situations. To do this we start with a question word: who, what, why, when, where, how, followed by the result clause followed by the condition clause. For example "what would you do if you were rich?". Question word. Result. Condition. If I were rich I would buy a pet zebra. Come on! Something more exciting, Toby! Think about it! Where would you sleep if you were homeless? I would sleep in the park! How would you react if I removed my clothes? I would turn off the video! Really? Would you? Yeah probably... Imaginary abilities. We can replace WOULD with COULD to talk about imaginary abilities. If I were famous I could get any girlfriend I wanted. This doesn't mean I would, it just means I would have the ability to. Just because you have the ability to do something doesn't mean you will do it. For example: if I were a professional cage fighter I could kill you! But I wouldn't because I love you! So much! Polite offers. We can use the first conditional for offers. To do this we replace WILL with CAN. I can call him if you want? I can arrange a fantastic dinner party for your family and friends if you want? This is fine and it's polite but we can be more polite! And to do this we use the second conditional and replace WOULD with COULD. I could call him if you wanted? I could arrange a fantastic dinner party for your family and friends if you wanted? It's a bit more nervous, a bit more tentative, a bit more "I'm not sure what your answer will be but I want to be polite so I will make the offer because I'm a polite wonderful guy. Formal requests. These are great to use in formal letters and emails so remember it for part two of the B2 First writing exam. It would be appreciated if you could send me further details about the job. It would be great if you could reply back as soon as possible. I would appreciate it if you didn't shout so much. Okay... So those are the functions. What about the grammar? Can we change the grammar in any way? Change the tenses. Unlike the zero and the first conditional there are not many changes to the tenses that we can make here. If you want you can change a past simple tense to a past continuous tense and you can change the WOULD plus INFINITIVE to WOULD plus CONTINUOUS. For example: If I were eating a Mcdonald's now I would be very happy. Here we have the past continuous plus the normal WOULD plus INFINITIVE. And we are doing this to talk about an imaginary situation in progress. If my bus were late I would be running to catch it now. And here we have a result clause that is an imaginary present situation. And these are the only changes we can make to the grammar. And this is why the second conditional is actually much easier than the zero and the first conditional. If you think they are easy still (which they are not) watch my videos on the zero and first conditional! Replace if with unless. UNLESS means BUT NOT IF. If we use unless usually we use the result clause first then plus UNLESS then plus the condition clause. I wouldn't buy it unless I were very sure I wanted it. This means I would buy it if I were very sure that I wanted it. And now for a question! A very important question! And to ask this question we will use the example of the most boring conditionals in the world! But I want you to think about the differences in meaning between these two sentences. If you study you will pass the exam. If you studied you would pass the exam. So we have a first conditional and a second conditional. But what are the differences in the meaning? Is there a difference in the meaning? Who am I talking to? Am I even a teacher? What am I? The first example is the first conditional. This means we are talking about a likely future. The second example is a second conditional. And this means we are talking about an unlikely, improbable or impossible future. So in the first example I'm talking to a good student. I think it is likely that you will study and if you study I think it's very likely that you will pass. Well done, you! In the second example I'm talking to a bad student! They don't study now in the present and so in the future I think it's unlikely they will study and it is definitely unlikely that they will pass the exam. If you watched more SMASH English videos you would definitely pass the exam! And I think it's unlikely that you will but you must! Please! Please! SUBSCRIBE! Yes!? And with that we are finished! People always think that the second conditional is so difficult but it's not! The zero and first conditionals are hard. The second is easy and the third is... confusing. But we will talk about that another time! If you liked the video don't forget to SMASH that like button, subscribe if you haven't already, leave a comment down below! My name is Toby and this was SMASH English!

Channel: SMASH English - Cambridge English Exam Preparation

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Id: OK93XYPcYn4

Length: 11min 29sec (689 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020