Grammar Zone | The Second Conditional

In this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Jack explains the second conditional. Second Conditional: If + past simple, would + base form. (Used for unreal or unlikely situations in the present or future) Example:  If I won the lottery, I would travel the world. If I were a superhero, I would be Ironman.  If a tiger walked into the room, I would hide under a table.  If I were you, I would go to the doctor.  Transcript: 00:00:01 Jack Welcome to the ADIZ English podcast. My name is Jack and today I have. 00:00:06 Jack Another solo episode. 00:00:08 Jack And we are in the grammar zone. 00:00:13 Jack And today's grammar is. 00:00:15 Jack Something that is called the 2nd conditional, the 2nd conditional and the 2nd conditional is. 00:00:27 Jack Another if clause where we start the sentence with. If we say if and then we use the past simple. 00:00:36 Jack And then the second clause of this sentence. 00:00:40 Jack We use wood. 00:00:41 Jack Plus the base form of the verb. 00:00:45 Jack And so let me give you an example here. 00:00:47 발표자 OK. 00:00:50 Jack And the difference between first conditional and 2nd conditional is the first conditional is a real or possible situation in the future. So the first conditional would be if it rains, I will stay indoors. 00:01:08 Jack And we use the if plus the present simple and then will plus the base form. 00:01:15 Jack And it's because these are likely or possible situations, but the second conditional is for unlikely or unreal or impossible situations, so things that we can imagine, another word we use in English to describe the 2nd conditional is. 00:01:36 Jack Hypothetical situations. 00:01:39 Jack And a hypothetical is something that is. 00:01:43 Jack Perhaps it's not physically possible. It's an imaginary situation. 00:01:49 Jack UM or something that's very unlikely to. 00:01:52 Jack Happen. So here's. 00:01:53 Jack An unlikely one. If I won the lottery. 00:01:59 Jack I would travel the world. 00:02:03 Jack So everybody knows winning the lottery is. 00:02:08 Jack Very, very unlikely. Even if you have a ticket or even if you have. 00:02:14 Jack A lot of tickets. 00:02:16 Jack It's very unlikely that you are going to win the lottery, but. 00:02:23 Jack It's fun to imagine. 00:02:25 Jack What you would do? 00:02:28 Jack If you were to win the lottery so we can make a sentence like this. 00:02:33 Jack If I won the lottery, I would travel the world. 00:02:40 Jack And so notice how instead of saying if I win the lottery. 00:02:45 Jack For the second conditional, we say if I won the lottery and instead of saying I will travel the world, we say I would travel the world. 00:02:57 Jack And here's an impossible one. 00:03:00 Jack And I'm going. 00:03:01 Jack To talk about the grammar in this one a little bit. 00:03:04 Jack After I give you the example. 00:03:07 Jack If I were a superhero. 00:03:10 Jack I would be Iron Man. 00:03:13 Jack Now we all know that superheroes are not real. 00:03:17 Jack They only exist in comic books and movies and television shows. 00:03:24 Jack We can imagine. 00:03:27 Jack What it would be like to be a superhero. 00:03:31 Jack So we say if I were a. 00:03:33 Jack Superhero. I would be Iron Man. 00:03:37 Jack Now I know what you're thinking. You're asking this question, Jack. Why did you say were instead of was? 00:03:45 Jack And this is. 00:03:48 Jack Because it's not technically a simple past, it's what we call the subjunctive mood. 00:03:55 Jack And when we're using the subjunctive mood, we don't have to use was. We just use only were. So if I were or if my house were bigger. 00:04:09 Jack I would have more rooms. 00:04:13 Jack If I were a superhero, I would be Iron Man. 00:04:19 Jack If I were a color. 00:04:21 Jack I would be the color blue. 00:04:24 Jack Right. We can't be a color. 00:04:27 Jack UM, but we can imagine what color kind of represents our personality. 00:04:35 Jack OK, maybe someone else would say if I wear a color, I would be ora