- Conditionals in Context
1. If I drove, I could give you a lift.
2. If I was driving into the city, I could give you a lift, but I am taking the train today.
In the first sentence the speaker can't drive (maybe because they don't have a car or a license) however, in the second the speaker usually drives but is not driving today. The use of the continuous shows that the action is not usual.
In both sentences the past tenses are use to show that we are talking about a hypothetical present. A hypothetical past would be expressed in the following way using the 3rd conditional:
If I had been driving into the city, I could have given you a lift but I took the train yesterday.
When deciding on what grammatical structure to use, think about the following:
- The nature of the action or the event
- The point of view of the speaker
- The nature of the verb you are using
- Reading Skills - Skimming and Scanning
- Word Combinations
- Comparisons
New English File pp. 50 - 51
Vocabulary
The Watershed
countable noun
The watershed is a time before which television broadcasters have agreed not to show programmes unsuitable for children, for example programmes that contain scenes of sex or violence.
[British]
Bad language before the watershed is widely resented.
The advert should only be shown after the 9pm watershed.
For other meanings of watershed and how the word originated got to: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/watershed?s=t
Homework
- Read the notes and do the exercises on comparison pp. 134 - 135 G2
- While you are watching TV this week make a note the type of advertising you see. What time were you watching = was it before or after the watershed? What products were the commercials promoting? Were the adverts directed at adults or children? Were the adverts suitable for children? Why/Why not?
Going Further
Find examples of the 2nd conditional in the following song. How does its use contribute to the meaning of the song?
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