Third conditional and past modals advice

New Cutting Edge Intermediate Modules 11 and 12

What should the people have done in these situations? What would have happened if the people had taken those different actions? What should they do now?

“I started smoking just in the evenings when I went out drinking with my friends, who all smoke, but now I think I am addicted and smoke 20 a day”

“I left the country because I didn’t believe in doing military service, but that now means I can’t visit my family without being arrested”

“I have 30,000 dollars of student loans to pay back, but with the bad economy I can’t get a well-paid job”

“I was hungry and had no money to buy food, so I stole a sandwich from the corner shop. I thought I had escaped but the shopkeeper had seen me and I have been arrested for shoplifting”

“My parents refused their permission for me to get married when I was 17, so we went across the border to Scotland and got hitched. Now my family won’t speak to me”

“My crazy ex-boyfriend was following me around and making threats, so I started carrying a gun to protect myself. Unfortunately, the police stopped me for speeding and found the gun”

“I brought home a fish I had caught and gutted it in the kitchen when my son was there, but he was so disgusted that now he refuses to eat fish or meat”

“Before my mother went into hospital she had signed a statement saying that if she lost consciousness she wanted us to switch off the life support machine, but now I think she might have already had Alzheimer’s when she signed that document”

“I worked 50 hour weeks to finish a big project on time because I thought I would be able to take it easy for a while because there wasn’t much to do after the project finished, but now my boss and colleagues are making pointed comments about me taking long lunch breaks etc”

What language can you use to give advice?

Compare with the phrases on page 129.

Discuss your advice for the situations on pages 128/ 129.

What language can you use to talk about problems and solutions?

Compare with the phrases on page 126.

Put the story into order.

 —————————–

PDF for easy saving and printing: Third conditional and advice

Related pages

Past modals page

Third conditional page

Cutting Edge Intermediate Module 11 page

Cutting Edge Intermediate Module 12 page

Giving advice activites to practise other language (TEFLtastic classics Part 27)

Leave a comment (link optional and email never shared)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.