🧪 Grammar B2-19: Mixed conditionals
A B2 material that dismantles the idea of “the four conditionals” and replaces it with a method a proficient user actually applies: read the two halves of the sentence separately, because each one carries its own clock. Two questions, asked one at a time — is the unreal part about the past (had done) or about now (did / were)? does the consequence happen now (would do) or did it finish back then (would have done)? — and the four combinations fall out on their own, mixes included. The two famous mixes each get their own formula, worked runs and practice set: a sealed past decision producing a present result (If I had taken that job, I would be living in Rome now), and a standing truth explaining one past moment (If Katya weren’t afraid of motorways, she would have picked her sister up on Sunday). The flagship comparison keeps the if-half identical word for word and flips only the result clock, so the learner can see that the meaning is carried entirely by the second half. Distractors throughout are the pure second and third conditionals, with every explanation pointing at the time word that gives the wrong answer away.
Lesson Plan
- Each half of a conditional carries its own clock
- If I had taken that job, I would be living in Rome now
- The formula: if-half clock + result clock
Key Vocabulary
Grammar Points
- Mixed conditional 1: If + past perfect, would + infinitive — a sealed past condition with a present result
- Mixed conditional 2: If + past simple / were, would have + past participle — a present condition with a past result
- The result-half chooses would + infinitive (often would be + -ing) for a present consequence and would have + participle for a finished one
- were for every person in a present-unreal if-half; had + past participle for a past-unreal one
- would never appears in the if-half, and the result-half runs one engine, not a splice of two
