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Six minute grammar from bbclearningenglish.com.
hello and welcome to six minute grammar with me, Neil and me, Catherine.
Hello.
And today we're talking about the third conditional.
Yes, we'll be looking at why and.
When we use it and we'll see how to form it.
They'll be a very helpful presentation pronunciation tip.
And there'll also be a third conditional quiz at the end of the show.
Now, the main use of the third conditional is to talk about imaginary situations in the past.
And here's Mike with our first example.
I was really late for work today.
When I got to the station it turned out the trains were cancelled.
If I had known the trains were cancelled, I would have taken a bus.
And Mike's last sentence is describing an imaginary situation.
In reality, Mike was late for work because he didn't know the trains were cancelled and he didn't take a bus.
He uses the third conditional to imagine a different past situation when he says, if I had known the trains were cancelled, I would have taken a bus.
Let's take a closer look.
There are two parts to this sentence.