Lesson: Third Conditionals
If we had sold more, we would have made a profit.
This lesson gives you a brief overview of third conditionals.
Introduction
And last but not least - third conditionals.
Third conditionals are the trickiest to build, but they are just as important as the other conditional types.
Third conditionals are used to talk about a situation that didn't happen. It helps us to imagine the result of this situation if it had taken place.
Let's have a look at this example:
If I had taken a taxi, I would have been on time.
The person says that they would have been at work on time if they had taken a taxi (instead of, perhaps, the train or bus). The third conditional shows us that this happened (or rather didn't happen) in the past and there is nothing that can change it in the present. It is over and done with, and the only possibility is to imagine what would have happened (the person would have been on time) if something had happened differently (if the person had taken a taxi).