131 A. Then, what could you do, tell me. Think what could you do to be able to create a
lot of sentences of this type
132K. Think about a reality
133A. Mhm
134K. No? to begin with
135A. in past
136K. Obviously
137A. For instance?
138K. For instance... mhm... to put it this way, relating it with my life, and if I had...
138A. No, don't imagine anything. Do not be hypothetical. It is the past, that is give me a
real event of your life.
140K. Aha...
141 A. Anything, there must be thousands.
142K. Yes (laughter) but from all of them....let's see. IfI...
143A. No, do not begin with "if I..." . Tell me something that happened to you.
144K. Mhm....I didn't go to school for one year.
145A. OK. That's it. That's a real event. Now, tell me something hypothetical, something
unreal related to this event.
146K. IfI had gone to school during that year....I wouldn't have applied for the BA so
late.
147A. Or you would have written your thesis, or you would have finished it, or you have
graduated. You can say twenty things about it.
149K . Mhm
150A. Then it becomes rather simple
15IK. Yes
152A. My parents got married, I was bom, I have a brother, well... I don't know... ten,
twenty, fifthy things that you want to say. If my parents hadn't gotten married, I wouldn’t
have been bom. You can say so many things. And if you want to go back and back. IfI
hadn't been bom my mother wouldn't have been so happy.
153K. Mhm
154A. Then, Why don't you make... a... list. Don't think about this (the third conditional).
It is difficult to think in those terms. There are so many possibilities...Rather think about
real facts in your own life. Aha?
155KAh!!!
156A. And there you have your own exercise...Mhm? Make twenty sentences in past
tense, afirmative and negative telling “my mother... studied to be a teacher”....
157K. There is an exercise in Interchange. It has a column with the real facts, and in the
other column there are the if clauses.
158A. The difference. No, the difference is that you are going to create the column.
159K.Yes
160A. You are going to create the second one from the first one. But you are not going to
start with the hypothetical one but with the real one. Ok?
161K. Yes
162A. Then, simply make a list.
163K. Mhm
164A. As many sentences as you want. The more you do the more you practise... from
things that have happened to you, yesterday, and then...
165K. And starting with real facts
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