third conditional

English

Noun

third conditional (plural third conditionals)

1. (language education, grammar) A structure used to talk about unreal or unfulfilled events in the past, containing an "if" clause (with a verb in the past perfect) and a main clause (with would + the bare perfect infinitive of a verb).

   "If Columbus hadn't discovered America, he wouldn't have been famous" is an example of the third conditional.

Coordinate terms

• zero conditional
• first conditional
• second conditional
• mixed conditional