The
past conditional describes a past situation that never happened,
or it did happen and the person speaking is describing the possibility
of something not happening in the past. This is also called the
past unreal or the past contrary-to-fact.
Here's an example:
If I had
gone to that party, I
would have had a good time.
(situation: I didn't go to the
party; therefore, I didn't have a good time.)
"If I had gone to that party" uses
the past perfect in this part of the sentence.
"I would have had a good time"
is the likely result.
Sometimes you can do this without
"if" and just use the past perfect:
Had I heard the weather report,
I would have taken an umbrella.
or....
If I had heard the weather report,
I would have taken an umbrella.
These are both good sentences,
but the second one is used more often.
Click on the video below:
Here are some more examples:
If she had been more careful,
she wouldn't have spilled her coffee.
(She wasn't careful, and this is
the result. You can't change the past, but you can talk about
it.)
If Stephanie hadn't
climbed up the tree, she wouldn't have fallen down and broken
her arm.
(But, in fact, she climbed the tree, fell down
and broke her arm)
If he had given up
smoking, he wouldn't have died at such an early age.
(He didn't give up smoking, and
then he died because of this fact.)
