How would I use the imperfect and pluperfect subjunctive in 'If Clauses'?

As A-level students, you will hear over and over again how you must have a variety of tenses - especially sophisticated ones - in your essays and your oral presentations in order to get to those top marks. One of the easiest ways to get sophisticated grammar into your work is to use contrary-to-fact conditional clauses, which are also known as 'if clauses'. Imperfect and pluperfect subjunctive if clauses express purely hypothetical situations, which are unreal situations that will not come true. These conditional sentences have two main clauses: the ‘condition clause’, where the verb takes on the past subjunctive; and the ‘result clause’, where the verb takes on the conditional tense. E.g: Si yo fuera rico, compraría un coche nuevo (If I was rich, I would buy a new car).Si hubieras venido a la fiesta, te habrías divertido mucho (If you had come to the party, you would’ve had a good time) In the first example, the imperfect subjunctive is used in the ‘condition clause’ as it relates to a fact in the PRESENT that is false (i.e. ‘If I was rich’ suggests that they are in fact not rich). Additionally, the conditional is used in the ‘result clause’. This creates this formula: SI + IMPERFECT SUBJUNCTIVE + CONDITIONAL. The second example is a little trickier. Here, the pluperfect subjunctive is used in the ‘condition clause’, as it relates to a fact in the PAST that is false (i.e. ‘If you had come to the party’ reinforces the idea that the person did NOT go). Due to the fact that the condition clause relates to a past event, the conditional in the ‘result clause’ must also relate to the past, and therefore it becomes the perfect conditional. In other words, this type of if clause describes something that would/could have happened if something else had happened. It therefore creates this formula: SI + PLUPERFECT SUBJUNCTIVE + PERFECT CONDITIONAL Here are some A-Level topic specific If Clauses… ENVIRONMENT - Si todos usáramos los focos de bajo consumo, reduciríamos nuestro impacto ecológico. (If we all used energy-efficient lightbulbs, we would reduce our carbon footprint)HEALTH - Si tuviera más dinero, comería más comida saludable. (If I had more money, I would eat more healthy food).IMMIGRATION - Si no él hubiera venido a este país, no habría sufrido de tanta discriminación. (If he hadn’t come to this country, he wouldn’t have suffered from so much discrimination).HEALTH - Si yo no hubiera sucumbido a la presión social, nunca habría fumado. (If I hadn’t given into peer pressure, I never would’ve smoked).

Answered by Charlotte V. Spanish tutor

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