The 3rd Conditional
make & use
IF + HAD/HADN'T + past participle, WOULD/WOULDN'T HAVE + past participle
Use the 3rd Conditional when you want to say how things would have been different in the past if the circumstances had been different too.
examples
1. If you hadn’t eaten so much, you wouldn’t have felt sick last night.
2. If we had earned more money, we would have moved to a better area of the city.
3. She would have got the job, if she’d left a better impression on the interviewers.
Now read the text about the sinking of the world’s most famous ship, and write 3rd conditional sentences to say how the ship crew would have avoided the disaster if they had made different decisions.
Why did Titanic sink?
THE STORY
On April 10th 1912 Titanic set sail on its first trip, from England to New York. At the time it was made, it was said to be the safest ship ever built. However, at 11.40 p.m. on April 12th, it hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic, and 3 hours later, at 2.20 a.m. it sank. There were 2,200 people on board, but only 705 survived. 1,503 people died, most from freezing in the cold water.
Why did the disaster happen, and why did so many people die?
There is no single reason to that, but the result of many factors.
THE MISTAKES
1. The ship received warnings about icebergs ahead, but didn’t slow down. Instead, it continued to sail at full speed.
2. The lookout sailor didn’t have any binoculars with him, so he couldn’t see the iceberg until it was too close to miss.
3. Although the ship carried 2,200 passengers, it only had 20 lifeboats, which was barely enough for 1,200 people.
4. Because Titanic was thought to be unsinkable, many passengers didn’t take the accident very seriously and didn’t hurry to get in the lifeboats. Therefore, many of the lifeboats left half empty.
5. The survivors were picked up by another ship, the Carpathia, which had received the emergency message on the radio. Another much closer ship to the Titanic didn’t receive the emergency message because the radio operator had gone to sleep.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Example: If the water had been warmer, more people would have survived.
Now, try to complete the other sentences. Click/tap on each sentence to open the correct answer.
had slowed down … wouldn’t have hit
had had … would have noticed
had had … would have been saved
wouldn’t have left … had taken
would have survived … hadn’t gone