Name: Second conditional secrets unlocked! - a Mini English Lesson
Uploaded: 2026-01-10T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 3 min 58 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Yusuf Ahmed has introduced us to a wild world of strange alien second conditional structures.

The imperative

Watch my wild interview with him after the break.

You might think you know everything there is to know about the second conditional.

If I had a time machine, I'd go to the year 3024.

If I had a spaceship, I'd explore a distant planet.

You know, If + the past simple and would + the infinitive.

But watch this wild interview with Yusuf Ahmed.

He's going to show you three alternatives.

It's the second conditional as you've never seen it before.

You've just finished work on Silent Planet.

In that film, you wake up 1,000 years in the future.

But tell me, Yusuf, what would you do if you woke up 1,000 years in the future and you were the only man alive?

Well, if it were me, I would be searching high and low for any signs of intelligent life.

You see, my character gives up, but I wouldn't.

If it hadn't been destroyed, I'd stay days, months, even years there.

Eventually you find a city full of strange alien beings.

If they were fighting wars and destroying the planet, I think I'd move on.

But if they had found a way to live in harmony,

I think I might stick around for a while.

First, he says, "If it were me, I'd be searching high and low for any signs of life."

You see, Yusuf wants to show that this is an ongoing activity with no clear beginning or end.

He also uses the past continuous in the if clause.

He says, "If they were fighting wars and destroying the planet, I'd move on."

He wants to show that these are ongoing activities of no clear beginning or end, and

He uses the past perfect in the if clause.

He says, "If it hadn't been destroyed, I'd stay there for days, months or even years."

In his imagination, Yusuf is in the future, and

if his house has not been destroyed, he will stay there for days, months or years.

"But why the past perfect?" I hear you say.

Well, it's because when we're talking about unreal or imaginary situations,

often, we shift the tense back, so the present perfect becomes the past perfect.

And he does it again because he says, "If they had found a way to live in harmony, I'd stick around for a while, I think."

And if these strange beings have found a way to solve things like war and pollution, well, he'll stick around.

Well, now it's time for you to boldly go where few have gone before.

If you woke up 1,000 years in the future and you were the last person alive, what would you do?

If you found a city full of strange alien beings, would you stick around?

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Second conditional secrets unlocked! - a Mini English Lesson

stick

eventually

present

character