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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Third conditional

Hi Can you help me?

I know that it's formed using the past perfect in the "if" clause and the present perfect in the results clause, but I wanted to know if it's correct to say

"If I had slept more last night I wouldn't be tired now"- is this the 3rd conditional/passive voice?

Is it possible to use the 3rd conditional to talk about things you would change in the past that could have an effect at the time of speaking?

"If I hadn't eaten so much, i wouldn't feel so sick"

"If we had asked for directions we wouldn't be lost"

I guess what I mean is does the result clause have to be in the present perfect for the sentence to be in the third conditional/ are all of the sentences above incorrect?
  

Top answer

Anonymous "If I had slept more last night I wouldn't be tired now"- is this the 3rd conditional/passive voice? This is a combination of types 2 and 3, with type 3 manifested in the if- clause and type 2 - in the main clause. By the way, there is no such thing as a *results clause, but 'a main clause' instead.

— Andriy Lapin

  • Anonymous "If I had slept more last night I wouldn't be tired now"- is this the 3rd conditional/passive voice?
  • This is a combination of types 2 and 3, with type 3 manifested in the if- clause and type 2 - in the main clause.
  • By the way, there is no such thing as a *results clause, but 'a main clause' instead.
  • It is interesting that you label 'be tired' as a passive construction.
  • In order not to go into details concerning the so-called passive gradient (which you can check out for yourself), let me just say that in the main clause the complement is adjectival, following a copular verb.
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3 Answers
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Anonymous"If I had slept more last night I wouldn't be tired now"- is this the 3rd conditional/passive voice?
This is a combination of types 2 and 3, with type 3 manifested in the if-clause and type 2 - in the main clause. By the way, there is no such thing as a *results clause, but 'a main clause' instead.

It is interesting that you label 'be
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AnonymousI wanted to know if it's correct to say
"If I had slept more last night I wouldn't be tired now"
It's correct. It's called a mixed conditional, just as your other examples are. Here's another:

If I had studied Japanese when I had the chance years ago, I would be able to speak it now.

CJ
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past perfect + present perfect

=had+past participle + have/has + past participle

=had+past participle + have + past participle

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