From the room, last lesson
Six sentences collected during the reflections. Look at them before you repair them: three of them are the same mistake.
Six sentences. One error each.
1. If I would have known, I would have said something.
2. I wish I would have asked at the time.
3. If I had left earlier, I would have been happier now.
4. I wish I would speak better Spanish.
5. If I was in your position, I would have refused. — in writing
6. If he would tell me the truth, everything would be easier.
The finding
When a chunk is the wrong size
Three of those six sentences are the same error. If I would have known, I wish I would have asked, and If he would tell me all put would somewhere it cannot be — and they do it because would have + participle was learned as one lump, and a lump travels whole.
The third conditional is taught as a shape: if + had + participle, would have + participle. Learned like that, it moves like that. So the would leaks backwards into the if clause, and the past result stays in the past even when the sentence says now two words later.
This is exactly the opposite of the problem in Unit 20. There, learners stored verb patterns in units that were too small — enjoy plus a rule, retrieved separately, too late. The repair was to store a bigger chunk: enjoy doing, one item.
Here the chunk is too big. And the reason for the difference is not psychological, it is grammatical. Verb patterns are arbitrary: nothing about enjoy tells you it takes -ing, so there is nothing to derive and the whole thing has to be stored. Conditionals are compositional: every part of them is derivable from two questions, so storing them whole is storing an answer you could have worked out — and it stops working the moment the question changes.
The size of the unit you store should match how much of it is derivable. Learners store everything at the same size, which is why the same person under-chunks their verb patterns and over-chunks their conditionals in the same five minutes of speech.
Three questions.
1. Why does would leak into the if clause?
2. Why was the repair in Unit 20 the opposite of the repair here?
3. What should decide how big a stored chunk is?
Breaking the lump
Three errors, one cause
| Error | What has happened | Repair |
|---|---|---|
| The would have lump has leaked into the condition | If I had known… — the condition takes past perfect and nothing else | |
| The same lump, after wish | I wish I had asked. | |
| Both halves moved together, because they were learned together | …I would be happier now. — the result is marked for its own time |
The repair, and it is a habit rather than a rule. Before you say a conditional, say the two times to yourself — past, now — and then build. Two syllables of preparation, and the sentence comes out marked correctly, because you have asked the question the lump was answering for you.
And one absolute: would never appears after if in an unreal conditional, and never after wish when the subject is the same person. Those two bans catch most of what remains.
Rewrite each sentence using the word given. Say the two times aloud before you write.
I did not know, so I did not say anything. HAD
I left too late, so I am still here. EARLIER
I am not brave, so I did not tell her. WERE
It is a pity I did not ask at the time. WISH
He keeps interrupting and I find it difficult. WOULD
I cannot drive, and it is a problem. COULD
Four questions.
1. What do you say to yourself before a conditional?
2. Where can would legally follow wish?
3. Why does storing the third conditional whole eventually fail?
4. Which should be stored whole rather than built?
Marking each half, at speed
Eight gaps. Five seconds each. Say the two times before you choose.
If she the email, she at the meeting now. She she had checked her phone. If she the kind of person who checks, she it, and none of this . As it is, she I would forward things twice, which I if she asked.
Eight sentences. Seven need repair; one is correct.
1. If I would have seen it, I would have replied.
2. I wish I would have known.
3. If she had checked, she would have been here now.
4. I wish he would answer his emails. — correct as written
5. If I was in charge, I would have changed it years ago. — in writing
6. I wish I would be more organised.
7. If they would ask me, I would say yes.
8. I hope I had gone to the funeral.
Say the two times first
Task card · Speaking · Pairs · 10 minutes
Talk about a decision from your own life, in conditionals — but announce each sentence before you say it.
Five minutes with the announcement, five without. Compare.
- Round one: before every conditional, say the two times out loud — "past, now" — then the sentence.
- Listener: mark every sentence where the announcement and the sentence disagreed.
- Round two: same conversation, no announcements. Listener marks errors as before.
- Compare the two counts. If round two is worse, the habit has not transferred yet, and that is useful information rather than a failure.
What the announcement is for. It is not a permanent practice. It makes the question audible for long enough that you can hear yourself answering it — and it is the only way to find out whether you are answering it at all, or reaching for a lump.
What the announcement caught
Two questions.
1. In round one, when the announcement and the sentence disagreed, which half was wrong?
2. What does that tell you about where the lump lives?
Match the unit to the derivation
Two questions. Twenty seconds.
1. Why do three different-looking errors turn out to be one?
2. How big should a stored chunk be?
Next. Three hundred words of reflection — the first B2 written piece, and the first that has to survive being read by somebody who was not there.