Two sentences
Read your two homework sentences — the impossible change and the real one. Do not say which is which. Your teacher will guess, and say why.
Still open, or already closed
Same wall, two different moments
Still open, before the decision: "If we phased the wall, we could keep this year’s number under budget."
Already closed, after the decision: "If we had specified a segmental gravity wall from the start, we would not have needed the engineering line item."
The first is still on the table. The second is not — the wall is already designed, already priced, already in the client’s hands. Using the wrong one tells the client something false about whether the option still exists.
Second and third conditional, and what each promises
Two conditionals, two conversations
| Form | Structure | What it tells the client |
|---|---|---|
| 2nd conditional | if + past simple, would + base verb | This option is still available — we could still choose it |
| 3rd conditional | if + past perfect, would have + past participle | This is history — the moment to choose it has passed |
| Mixed (past cause, present result) | if + past perfect, would + base verb | A past decision, still affecting where we are right now |
The mixed form is not a mistake — it is a third real option, and it is exactly right when a past choice explains a present state: "If we had priced the spa separately in the original proposal, you would not be surprised by this number now." The cause is finished (3rd, past perfect); the result is ongoing (2nd, plain would). Reaching for the fully-3rd form there (you would not have been surprised) quietly closes a conversation that is actually still live.
The Portuguese pull. Portuguese marks this distinction too — se eu tivesse vs se eu tivesse tido — so the concept transfers. The transfer error is elsewhere: dropping the if-clause past tense under pressure and reaching for would in both halves — if we would phase the wall, we would keep it under budget. In spoken negotiation, under time pressure, this is the single most common conditional error in English, in any L1, and it reads as informal rather than wrong — worth fixing anyway, because a spec-register conversation calls for the accurate form.
Negotiation lexis for this unit
Listen and repeat.
Choose the conditional
Complete each sentence with the correct form. One word per gap.
If we the wall, we could keep this year’s number under budget. If we specified a segmental gravity wall from the start, we would not have needed the engineering line item. If we had priced the spa separately in the original proposal, you not be surprised by this number now. If the bid in under budget, we would not be having this conversation at all.
Each sentence has one conditional error. Rewrite it correctly.
1. If we would phase the wall, we would keep this year’s number under budget.
2. If we specified a segmental gravity wall from the start, we would not have needed the engineering.
3. If we had priced the spa separately, you would not have been surprised by this number now.
4. If the bid would come in under budget, we would not have this conversation.
Still open, or already closed?
Task card
Five statements about the Colonial Ln. project
For each, say whether the option is still open or already closed, in a full conditional sentence.
- Your teacher reads a situation. You decide which conditional fits and say the sentence.
- At least one should genuinely be ambiguous — could be read either way depending on where the project actually is.
- If it is ambiguous, say so, and say which reading you are choosing and why.
Which form did you default to?
Under pressure, most learners default to one conditional and force every situation into it. Which one did you lean on? What did it cost you in one of the five cases?
Before the next lesson
Homework. Say this sentence out loud, three times, three different ways: "That could be tricky." Notice what your voice does at the end each time. Bring a guess about which version sounds most polite.