· We use past tense conditional clauses to talk about something that is impossible or unlikely. Remember that there are two clauses in a conditional sentence or question; the situation clause and the result clause.

Result

Situation

I’d buy a big house.

· One part, the situation clause, uses a past tense verb to show that the situation is impossible or unlikely.

· The other part, the result clause, usually uses the past tense would or could to talk about the action in the result.

Translate these sentences into Korean:

If I go to the moon I will meet the rabbit.

If I went to the moon I would meet the rabbit.

One Korean sentence will work for both English sentences, but to a native speaker of English they have very different meanings.

In English, this grammar is important because it tells native speakers how you feel about the possibility of the situation occurring.

· Look at this conversation. What is wrong with these conversations and how would you correct them?

Mark: If I meet a space alien, I’m going to fly on his spaceship and go to his planet. Then I’ll live with him. It’s gonna be great.

Rob: Excuse me, but are you insane? Do you actually believe you’re going to meet an alien?

What should Mark have said? ___________________________________________________________________________________

Look at another.

Son: If I go to jail, I’ll escape like Shin Chang Won.

Father: What did you do! Did you commit a crime?

What should the son have said? _________________________________________________________________________________

Here is another common mistake:

If I would meet Meg Ryan, I would kiss her.

· You can’t use would in both clauses. Only in the result. (If I met…, I would…)