Lesson 55

Women and the Third Conditional Tense

Lesson contents:

- Conditional tenses
- One of many phrasal verbs using
   hold: "hold on" (with 4 definitions
   of this single phrasal verb)
- Carlos and Steve: What should
   they have done?
- Ralationships

Always watch the video without subtitles first in order to train your ears! It's a good idea to watch several times until you feel the "music", before watching the version with subtitles. Your pronunciation will be much better if you follow this rule.

Exercises for this lesson:

• The Third Conditional, with summary of all 4 conditional tenses
• What is Carlos paying for?
• Carlos (b)
• He's gonna hold on.
• Sid's Prior Relationships
• Steve's Worst Decision
• Three Bad Decisions

How to do the lessons:

1. Watch the video without subtitles.
2. Do all the Exercises.
3. Come back to this page.
4. Watch the video with English Subtitles. Use the Pause button. People speak fast!

Problems? See general support, recording support or ask your question here.

Women and the Third Conditional Tense
Watch this video, then click on Exercise 1

Same video with Precise Subtitles
Do the exercises before watching this video with subtitles.

Real English®

Teachers:

What's the biggest mistake you've ever made? What's the worst decision you've ever made? The answers concern women and the 3rd conditional tense.

Conditionals are a bit complicated. I made a table in the first exercise which will hopefully help students understand the different conditional tenses.

In our first example, Carlos says that he would not have got divorced if he had known the consequences. He would have made an effort to stay married. he would have held on (to his former wife).

Sid is less forthcoming, telling us simply that his worst decisions concerned prior relationships with women. Steve, on the other hand, tells us very specifically that he should have married a certain girl 6 years ago. The interviewer replies Ohhh. Is there any recovery from that bad decision? Obviously not. Life goes on.