3rd Conditional – English Grammar Exercise

The third conditional is used when describing something that never happened, and then imagining the outcome of that situation.

The structure is: if + past perfect, would have + past participle

For example: “If she had studied, she would have passed the exam” (but she didn’t study, and therefore didn’t pass the exam).

The first action (If she had studied) did not happen. But if it had happened, the consequence would be that she would have passed the exam.

The 3rd conditional is relatively similar to the 2nd. However, the 2nd conditional describes something unrealistic or impossible in the present or future, the 3rd conditional refers to something that didn’t happen in the past.

For example:

“She wouldn’t have been tired if she had gone to bed earlier” (but she went to bed late, so she’s tired).

“If you hadn’t been late, we wouldn’t have missed the flight” (but you were late, so we missed the flight).

So now you’ve seen a few examples, why not test your knowledge with our quiz!

What do you think about the 3rd conditional? Do you find it easy or hard? Let us know what you think in the comments, and make sure to check out our other blog posts and English exercises!