Name: Mixed conditional 1: Grammar: Conditionals with Georgie
Uploaded: 2025-12-06T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 2 min 45 s
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Hi, I'm Georgie from BBC Learning English.

The zero, the first, the second, the third.

But did you know that you can mix them up to have new meanings?

Now, we could say that our lives now are a result of a chain of events that happened in the past.

I live in London now because I applied for a job in the past.

Oh, I am so tired. I hardly slept last night.

If I'd slept properly, I wouldn't be so tired now.

Because he didn't sleep well in the past.

Now, this is a type of mixed conditional.

You might recognise the third conditional structure in the first part

and the second conditional structure in the second part.

But we'll come back to the structure later.

For now, you just need to know that this type of mixed conditional is for expressing how your life now is affected by something that happened in the past.

If I hadn't got this job, I would probably still be in Korea.

No, he lives in London, working for the BBC.

Again, he's imagining how a past event influenced his present reality.

He got the job in the past, so now he lives in London, not Korea.

So if Covid hadn't happened, I wouldn't live where I live now

because I wouldn't be able to work from home and I wouldn't be able to live outside of London.

Since the pandemic, a lot more people are able to work from home.

Now, Pippa's job is in London, but because of the pandemic,

she's able to live outside of London because she doesn't have to come into the office every day.

Something in the past is affecting her life now.

If I hadn't learnt Spanish when I was younger, my life would be very different now.

If I hadn't got married, I wouldn't be working in London right now.

Pause the video and think about which structures are used to make this type of mixed conditional.

The structure is the past perfect in the if-clause and would plus a base verb in the main or result clause.

To recap, this mixed conditional is about how past events are affecting your life now.

If I had eaten breakfast, I wouldn't be so hungry now.

check out the rest of the Conditionals with Georgie series and download a free worksheet on our website.