B2 Unreal conditionals

B2 GRAMMAR: UNREAL CONDITIONALS

The Bridge That Was Never Built

PICTURE

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"There is no version of Vallinor that isn't arguing about this."

Second conditional · third conditional · mixed conditionals · could / might (have)

Reading

Speaking

A · LEAD-IN

The great what if

Discuss in pairs.

1. Every town has a decision it still argues about - a road, a factory, a stadium, a river.

2. What's the great "what if" of your town, or of your family?

3. Would things really be so different?

PICTURE

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B · BEFORE YOU READ

Nineteen votes, thirty years ago

In 1994, six hundred people voted on a bridge. Thirty years later, they are still arguing about it - and they are about to vote again.

READ ONCE AND ANSWER

PICTURE

1. What did the town of Vallinor vote against in 1994?

2. Do people now think the decision was right?

3. First: predict who gains and who loses when a small town gets a motorway link.

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B · READING

The bridge that was never built

"Ask three people about it today and you will get four opinions."

Thirty years ago this spring, the six hundred residents of Vallinor voted - by nineteen votes - against building a bridge across the river to the regional motorway. It remains the most argued-about evening in the town's history. Ask three people about it today and you will get four opinions.

"If we'd built the bridge, this square would be a car park by now," says Odile, 71, who campaigned against it and has never once wavered. "Look at Sarnes downriver - they built theirs in '96. If you visited Sarnes today, you wouldn't be able to tell it from any suburb anywhere. Twenty-minute commute to the city, yes. And nothing left worth commuting home to. If our young people were leaving because of that vote, I'd feel guilty. But they'd be leaving anyway - they always have. At least they leave somewhere worth missing."

B · READING (continued)

The bridge that was never built

Grzegorz, who runs the town's last hardware shop, sees a different ledger. "If the bridge existed, I'd have four competitors and five hundred more customers, and I'd take that trade happily. My son wouldn't be living ninety minutes away - if we'd built it, he could have stayed, taken over the shop, raised the grandchildren here instead of on a video screen. People romanticise isolation when their children haven't left yet."

The mayor at the time, Csilla Varga, now 84, is harder to place. "Everyone remembers the vote. Nobody remembers the rain," she says. "The night of the meeting, the road to the valley flooded, and forty farmers who supported the bridge were pumping out their barns instead of voting. If it hadn't been raining that night, the bridge would almost certainly exist, and we would be having this same conversation in reverse - you'd be interviewing people about whether we should have kept the ferry. There is no version of Vallinor that isn't arguing about this."

The ferry, incidentally, still runs: four crossings a day, eight minutes each way, run by the third generation of the same family. Tourists photograph it constantly. "If it were ugly, they'd have replaced it decades ago," shrugs the ferryman. "Beauty is a terrible argument. It just happens to be a very patient one."

Last year, the regional government offered to fund the bridge again - fully, no local contribution. The town will vote in June. The posters are already up, and several of them, on both sides, have been made by the grandchildren of the people who made them last time.

C · COMPREHENSION

Who thinks it - Odile (O), Grzegorz (G), Csilla (C), or the ferryman (F)?

1. The town of Sarnes lost its identity after building its bridge.

2. The bridge would have kept at least one family together.

3. Bad weather, not conviction, decided the 1994 vote.

4. Young people leave regardless of infrastructure.

5. The ferry has survived because it is beautiful.

6. Whichever way the vote had gone, the town would still be arguing.

D · GRAMMAR FOCUS

A different present, a different past

a) If you visited Sarnes today, you wouldn't be able to tell it from any suburb.

b) If our young people were leaving because of that vote, I'd feel guilty.

c) If we'd built it, he could have stayed.

d) If the bridge existed, I'd have four competitors.

1. (a) and (d) imagine a different present. What is the structure? In (b), which past form appears in the if-clause - and what does it emphasise: a state, or something in progress?

2. In (c), both halves are about the past. What is the full third-conditional structure? Why could have stayed rather than would have stayed - what changes?

D · GRAMMAR FOCUS

Mixing the times

a) If it hadn't been raining that night, the bridge would almost certainly exist.

b) If we'd built the bridge, this square would be a car park by now.

c) If it were ugly, they'd have replaced it decades ago.

1. The mixed pairs. In (a) and (b) the if-clause is past perfect (a past condition), but the result is would exist / would be... by now. When do we mix like this - what time is the condition, and what time is the result?

2. Now (c) mixes the other way: if it were ugly (a present, general condition) leads to they'd have replaced it decades ago (a past result). Explain the logic in your own words.

3. In (c), why were and not was? Is was also possible in informal English - and in which fixed phrase is were strongly preferred?

D · THE RULES

Complete the rules

Complete the rules with one word in each gap.

• Second conditional: if + past simple / ______, would / could / might + infinitive - an imaginary present or future.

• Third conditional: if + past ______, would / could / might have + past ______ - an imaginary past.

• Mixed 1: past condition, ______ result: If we'd built it, I'd be richer now.

• Mixed 2: present or general condition, ______ result: If he were more careful, he wouldn't have crashed.

CAREFUL

Could have and might have soften a third conditional: would have stayed = certain, could have stayed = it would have been possible. And in the if-clause we never use would: If I would have known.

E · CONTROLLED PRACTICE

Complete with an unreal conditional form. Some are mixed - read the time words carefully.

1. If the farmers ______ (vote) that night, the bridge ______ (exist) today.

2. I ______ (not live) ninety minutes away now if the bridge ______ (be built) in the nineties.

3. If she ______ (not campaign) so hard back then, she ______ (not be) so certain now.

4. If the ferry ______ (be) faster, more people ______ (use) it - but eight minutes suits nobody in a hurry.

5. He ______ (might / take over) the shop if there ______ (be) any future in it at the time.

6. If you ______ (drive) through Sarnes right now, you ______ (see) exactly what we avoided.

7. If I ______ (be) you, I ______ (read) both sides' posters before June.

8. We ______ (would / not have) this conversation today if it ______ (not rain) thirty years ago.

F · FREER PRACTICE

The reversal

Take a real decision from your own life, your family's, or your town's - one that could have gone the other way.

• Present both timelines to your group: two sentences about what would be different now (mixed or second conditional).

• Two sentences about what would have happened then (third conditional).

• One honest sentence about what would probably be exactly the same either way. The group votes: right decision, wrong decision, or - like Vallinor - permanently undecidable.

PICTURE

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TEACHER'S REFERENCE · HIDE OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key

B GIST A bridge to the motorway. The town remains split - some credit the "no" vote with saving the town's character, others count the families it scattered, and Csilla argues the weather decided it anyway. They vote again in June.

C 1 O · 2 G · 3 C · 4 O · 5 F · 6 C.

D PART 1 1 If + past simple, would / could + infinitive; past continuous (were leaving) - something in progress, an ongoing trend. 2 If + past perfect, would / could / might have + past participle; could have stayed = it would have been possible, less certain than would.

D PART 2 3 Past condition, present result: the imagined past decision changes today's reality (would exist... would be a car park by now). 4 A general or present truth (if it were ugly) explains a past outcome that didn't happen (they'd have replaced it decades ago): present condition, past result. 5 Were is the traditional subjunctive with I / he / she / it; was is fine informally; If I were you strongly prefers were.

RULES continuous · perfect · participle · present · past.

E 1 had voted / would exist · 2 wouldn't live (wouldn't be living) / had been built · 3 hadn't campaigned / wouldn't be · 4 were (was) / would use · 5 might have taken over / had been · 6 drove (were driving) / would see - mixed with "right now", so accept a straight second conditional · 7 were / would read (I'd read) · 8 wouldn't be having / hadn't rained.