Rob on Me, Catherine.

Hello.

This program is all about the second conditional.

Yes, the second conditional will see how to form it.

We'll look at why, and when we use it, they'll be a very helpful pronunciation.

Tip on.

There'll be a second conditional quiz at the end of the show, so listen carefully.

Let's start by looking at why and when we use the second conditional.

The main use of the second conditional is to talk about impossible, unlikely or imaginary situations.

And here's an example to do with football.

Catherine, your football fun.

Um, I would like to watch the big games, the internationals, the England Games in particular.

I do like an England game.

Yes, they have one for a long time, but no, not since 66 I think 66 a long time ago, but maybe they'll win one day.

Maybe, but at the moment, it's just a dream, not a strong possibility.

So Mike's here.

Let's have a second conditional sentence about that situation.

Mike, If England won the World Cup, Catherine would be so happy.

Mmm.

If England won the World Cup.

Katherine will be so happy, Katherine.

Is that true?

It is.

Actually, I'd be very happy.

Unlikely, but I'll be happy.

Good.

So this is a second conditional sentence on it's made of two parts.

The first part starts with the word if plus a subject and a past simple verb on the first part describes an unlikely or imaginary situation like this.

If England won the World Cup.

Thanks, Mike, on the second part of the sentence has the wood wood or the negative wouldn't with an infinitive verb on.

This describes a possible result off the unlikely or imaginary situation.

Catherine would be so happy.

That's the result of the imaginary situation.

And yes, if England won the World Cup, we'd both be very happy, wouldn't we, Katherine?

We would.

Good.

Now we could change the order of the two parts on the meaning.

Stays the same.

We'd be so happy if England won the World Cup.

Right?

Thanks, Mike.

Let's have some more examples.

If Sonny had more money, he'd get a better phone.

I wouldn't see you very often if I lived in the city.

Maria would have a better job if she spoke more English.

If I were you, I'd take a holiday.

Thanks.

Lots of examples there.

And the last one is particularly interesting.

If I were you, I take a holiday.

And of course, this isn't a real situation, because I can't be you.

Can I?

You can't be anybody, Rob.

Except yourself.

Just you stuck with you.

You start with me.

Yeah, I'm afraid so.

Anyway, we say a second conditional sentence, starting with the words if I were you.

When we want to give someone some advice and hear the advice is to go on holiday.

Yeah.

Good advice on It's interesting, actually, that a lot of native speakers say, if I were you and not if I was you And if I were you, I'd go somewhere nice and hot with palm trees and sandy beaches.

Six from BBC Learning English on.

We're talking about second condition ALS.

And now, for a word about pronunciation contract shins or short forms off.

Very common in second conditioners.

But they can sometimes be a little bit difficult to hear.

Yes, that's a good point.

In the last example, the two words I and would become I'd I take a holiday.

Yep.

So wood is shortened to just sound Listen out for the short does sound in this next example.

If I knew the answer, I'd tell you yes.

The phrase I would tell becomes I tow one more time.

Please make If I knew the answer, I'd tell you well, wherever you are, I hope you know the answers to the quiz because it's coming up next.

Yes, it's quiz time.

Choose the correct word or phrase to fail each gap.

And here's the 1st 1 If you do some money on the street, what would you do?

Is the missing word, eh?

Find be found or C would find.

And the answer is B.

If you found £50 on the street, what would you do?

Good on another one if you forgot your wife's birthday, What she do?

Is it eight does be Will we'll see wood And the answer is C.

If you forgot your wife's birthday, what would she do?

I wonder what you do on the last one.

I wouldn't eat that if I you Is it a, um be were for C B on dhe.

It's B.

I wouldn't need that if I were you well done if you got all those right.

So we've been talking about the second conditional It's made of if plus the past simple tents on wood, plus the infinitive.

We use it to talk about imaginary situations on their results.

And there's more about this on our website at BBC learning english dot com, Join us again soon for more six minute drummer.