Future Unreal Conditional
Hi everyone!
A few weeks ago, we learned about the future unreal conditional. We found out that the usual way to talk about imaginary situations in the future is actually to use the future REAL conditional. That sounds odd, but it's got a good reason, which is that ALL future situations are really imaginary, simply because they haven't happened yet!
So the future unreal conditional is only used to emphasize that something in the future is IMPOSSIBLE.
If I had a day off from work next week, I would go to the beach.
> BUT I don't have a day off from work. Going to the beach is IMPOSSIBLE for me.
However, you might have noticed that this construction is exactly the same as the present unreal conditional. You can usually distinguish them from context, for example if the sentence uses future words like 'tomorrow' or 'next week'
If I had a day off today, I would go to the beach. (today = present)
If I had a day off next week, I would go to the beach. (next week = future)
Because of that, English speakers often use a special second form of the future unreal conditional. That is:
If... were (verb + ing), ... would be (verb + ing).
If I were going to Okinawa, I would be taking my scuba diving gear with me.
> I am not going to go to Okinawa and I am not going to take my scuba gear with me (in the future).
This has the same meaning as the future unreal forms above, but now it's clear that we mean the future.
One tricky thing about this second form is that we don't have to use BOTH the 'were' part in the IF clause AND the 'would be' part in the RESULT clause. It's okay to use only one or the other, like this:
If I went to Okinawa, I WOULD BE TAKING my scuba diving gear with me.
If I WERE GOING to Okinawa, I would TAKE my scuba diving gear with me.
Both of these examples have the same meaning as the first example, and all three examples are very clear about being about the future.
So, now we've learned about all six standard conditionals. But we aren't finished yet! In the coming weeks we'll learn about continuous and mixed conditionals. I can't wait!
See you next week.
-Tim
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