Second conditional in English- Correct usage

Question

I am confused about the second conditional in English. I have just had a look at these sites.

http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/english-conditionals-second-conditional.html
http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary/2nd-conditional.html

and 

http://www.englishpage.com/conditional/pastconditional.html

On the first two sites it's given that this conditional rule is applied when the situations

are unreal/imaginary, but on the third site it's totally different one.

Can you tell me the correct use of second conditional in English?

These are some expamples:

If you had a good time with ABC hotel, ring the bell.

If interested, apply for this job.

If you didn't register for a BBC ID then somebody else may type in your email address by accident. If this has happened you can ignore this email.

Forgive me If was wrong.

Can anyone clear my confusion?. What do above sentences mean? Please explain it to me. 

Helpful responses would be appreciated.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Hi;

There are different conditionals, but they all follow the same general pattern:

If X, then Y.

In conditionals, there are all kinds of possible situations.

1) When? (Is the condition present, past, or future?)

2) Degree? (Is the condition or statement always true, always false, or somewhere in between?)

So (1) and (2) combinations are the basis for the various grammatical constructions.

Zero conditional: (1) anytime, and (2) the statement is true.

If you drop an egg onto concrete, it breaks. (present)

If you drop an egg onto concrete, it will break. (future)

If you killed your neighbor's sheep, the village elders would make you give him three lambs. (past)

First conditional: (1) Future and (2) the statement is (mostly) true.

If it rains tomorrow, we will cancel the soccer game.

If I fail my exam, I will be unhappy.

If you don't have a degree, they won't hire you.

Second Conditional: (1) future and (2) the condition is false or not likely to be true.

If I were you (false), I would go to the concert.

If it snowed in the tropical rainforest (unlikely), I would be shocked.

If I gave you a million dollars (false), you could stop working so hard.

Third conditional: (1) Past and (2) the condition is hypothetical (it did not actually happen).

(I failed my test.) If I had studied harder, I would have passed the test.

(It did not flood.) If it had rained more, there would have been a flood.

CalifJim · Answer

A conditional statement has an if-clause and a main clause.

If they had more money, they would buy a new car.

You can put any tense you want in the if-clause and any tense you want in the main clause, as long as they make sense. The main clause can also have an imperative.

If she was there (past), I will find out about it (future).

If she was there (past), tell me about it (imperative).

So, with all the different tenses you can have in the if-clause and all the different tenses you can have in the main clause, you can see that the number of combinations is very large. There may be 25 to 30 different combinations that are used.

Out of all these different combinations, only three are named. First conditional, second conditional, third conditional. (Not very interesting names, but those are the names of the tense combinations in these special three patterns.)

First conditional: IF present, WILL ...

Second conditional: IF past, WOULD ...

Third conditional: IF ... HAD past-participle, WOULD HAVE past-participle ...

Some writers add a fourth one, called the Zero conditional: IF present, present. Other writers may give different names to other patterns, but the three above are the most commonly seen in grammar books.

Other modal verbs can substitute for will and would, for example may, might, shall, should, can, and could.

___________________________

You asked about the second conditional. Note that the main clause of the second conditional contains the word would. None of the sentences below contains wouldor any of its substitutes, so none of them are second conditionals. Sorry.

If you had a good time with ABC hotel, ring the bell.
If (you are) interested, apply for this job.
If you didn't register for a BBC ID, then somebody else may type in your email address by accident.
If this has happened, you can ignore this email.
Forgive me if was wrong.

They aren't first, second, or third conditionals, so they are just "unnamed" conditionals.

Just call them conditional statements if you want, but realize that they don't belong in any of the three groups of conditionals explained above.

___________________________

The third link you gave above has material on what they call the past conditional. IF past, past. This does not have the same structure as the second conditional.

CJ

Detylmarande · Answer

correct me please with my understanding about this conditional forms..

i am also really confused about it.

for example

zero conditional:

= when i am not busy i fix my computer. (is it a general truth?) everytime my computer breaks down i fix it..

1st conditional:

= if i am not busy i will fix my computer. (is it 100% sure?) i am 100% sure that i will fix my computer if i have a free time.

2nd conditional:

= if i were not busy i would fix my computer. (is it like 50 50?) i don't know if i have a mood to fix the computer.. you were not giving any assurance.

3rd conditional:

= if i had not been busy *yesterday i would have fixed my computer. (is it happened in the past?) it sounds like i am regreting now because i did not fix my computer that was supposed to be yesterday for my computer to get fixed..

pls guide me with this..

thanks!

from philippines

CalifJim · Answer

detylmarandereally confused about it

I don't think you are as confused as you say you are. Your examples are all correct.

(You do need to use correct capitalization, though.)

It may help you to know that the second and third conditionals you wrote are counter-factuals.

If I were not busy (but I am busy), I would fix my computer. (But I am busy, so I won't be fixing my computer.)

If I had not been busy (but I was busy), I would have fixed my computer. (But I was busy, so I didn't fix my computer.)

CJ

Harry1999 · Answer

@AlpheccaStars: Can you explaine me your third sentence?

If you killed your neighbor's sheep, the village elders would make you give him three lambs. (past)

Does it mean "He killed his neighbor's sheep and village elders made him to give three lambs."?

What do the following sentences indicate?

----Forgive me if I was wrong.

----If it happened very bad to you, better to forget now.

----If he was angry with you, Why didn't you were angry with him?

Please explain

Harry1999 · Answer

@CJ: can you please explain the meanining of above and their types?

AlpheccaStars · Answer

In my third sentence, I assumed there was a law in the past. Every culture has laws. If you break a law, you will be punished.

Mothers have laws for the kids too.

If you don't eat all your vegetables, you can't have sweets.

If a brother hits his sister, he has to stand in a corner of the room for 30 minutes. And then he has to say to his sister, "I'm sorry I hit you." .

harry1999
--Forgive me if I was wrong.

This is a polite request. It is like "excuse me."

I bump into someone by accident on the street. I say "Please excuse me."

--If he was angry with you, why weren't you angry with him? Answer: Because you forgave him, but he did not forgive you.

Here is a good link for conditionals: http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-conditional_5.htm

Anonymous · Answer

many thanks calif..

i have been enlightened in your explanations for using modal verb would..

ooops.. and about the capitalization matters? i will be in it when i finishes understanding about these tenses..

those are really appreciated

Anonymous · Answer

thank you so much CJ.. I am enlightened! <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

Second conditional in English- Correct usage

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