2.3. Condicional tipo III

Importante

Condicional tipo III

Se plantean situaciones hipotéticas en el pasado. En este caso lo que se sugiere es un pasado alternativo a acciones que ya han tenido lugar, lo que podría haber ocurrido si las circunstancias del pasado hubieran sido otras.

La estructura básica lleva el verbo de la condición en Pasado Perfecto Simple (Had + Participio de Pasado) y en el resultado en el tiempo Condicional Perfecto. (Would + Have + Participio de Pasado)

Como variantes, en el resultado puede aparecer varios modales perfectos: Could, May, Might, Must, Needn’t...

Estructura básica:   IF + Pasado Perfecto (Had + Participio de Pasado), Condicional Perfecto(Would + Have + Participio de Pasado)

Posibles variantes:  IF + Pasado Perfecto, Modal + Have + Participio de Pasado

Ejemplos:

1. If he had had healthier habits, he wouldn’t have had a heart attack so young. (Si él hubiera tenido unos hábitos más saludables, no habría tenido un ataque al corazón tan joven.)

Si en este ejemplo hubiéramos usado may o might en lugar de would habríamos dado a entender que probablemente no habría tenido el ataque.

2. If he hadn't worked as a miner, he wouldn't have suffered from lung cancer. (Si no hubiera trabajado como minero, no habría padecido cáncer de pulmón.)

 

3. If he hadn't stepped on the ball, he wouldn't have sprained his ankle. (Si no hubiera pisado la pelota, no se habría torcido el tobillo.)

Caso de estudio

Traduce estas oraciones teniendo en cuenta lo anteriormente  explicado.



1. If we had known about your health problem, we would have tried to help you.

2. AIDS wouldn’t have spread so fast the first year if people had been aware of the dangers of unsafe sex.


3. He wouldn’t have got wet if he he had carried an umbrella with him.


4. Bikini atoll wouldn’t have disappeared if the US government hadn’t tested nuclear bombs there.


5. If I had taken that plane to New York, I would have died in the plane crash.


6. If she had driven more carefully, she wouldn’t have had the accident.


7. She wouldn’t have stopped working early if she hadn’t had to go to the dentist.


8. She wouldn’t have had an acute pain in her shoulder if she hadn’t fallen down the stairs.


9. If she had not got pregnant so young, she would have studied Engineering at university.


10. If the baby had refused to eat some fruit, I would have given him a bottle.


11. If she hadn’t swerved to avoid the dog, she wouldn’t have lost the control of the car.


12. I wouldn’t have called you so late if I hadn’t needed your advice.


13. I would have written down your email address if you hadn’t given it to me before.


14. Smallpox wouldn’t have caused so many deaths in the past if sanitary conditions had been better.


15. If he hadn’t been in such a hurry, he would have remembered to lock his car.

Actividad de lectura

Lee el siguiente texto. Esperamos que lo encuentres interesante y no te resulte difícil de entender.

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture

If you were about to die, what advice would you share, who would you thank and who would be on your mind? That is something that Randy Pausch unfortunately had the chance to do.

Randy Pausch was a Carnegie Mellon University computer-science professor who died from a pancreatic cancer in 2008. Being seriously ill, he was asked to take part in “The Last Lecture Series”, that is, to think deeply about what matters to him and to give a hypothetical final talk, as if it was his intellectual legacy. His wasn’t hypothetical.

If we had been among the audience, we would have been surprised by what he did. He entitled it Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.He didn't list his achievements in the computer science field. He showed his latest medical results revealing that he had ten tumours on his liver. But after that, he talked about his passion for life, how happy he was to help others achieve their dreams and to have been able to accomplish some of his, he thanked his parents and wife for understanding him and making him a happy man and dedicated the lecture to his three children, aged 5, 2 and 1. He regretted that he was not going to see them grow up. The lecture was his living will for them.

This lecture was recorded for them and it can be found on the Carnegie Mellon University web site. If you can watch it, do it. You will be moved and appreciate little things in life much more and deeper.

Randy Pausch durante la conferencia

Imagen en Flickr de wil p bajo CC

Y si después de leerlo tienes curiosidad por saber más de Randy Pausch, en la palabra watch, que está subrayada en el texto, tienes un enlace que te permitirá hacerlo.

Ahora te vamos a pedir que encuentres en el texto las oraciones condicionales que hay y di de qué tipo son de acuerdo con lo explicado.

Presta especial atención al conector condicional para localizarlas y los tiempos verbales que aparecen.

Tradúcelo ahora y contrasta tu traducción con la que aquí te proponemos como una de las posibles.