Third Conditional ESL Games, Activities & Worksheets

ESL Third Conditional Game - Grammar: Gap-fill, Guessing - Pair Work In this engaging third conditional game, students practice the third conditional by completing and guessing missing verb phrases in sentences. Student A starts by reading the first third conditional sentence to their partner and guessing the missing verb phrase. Student A has three chances to guess each missing verb phrase. If Student A guesses the exact phrase that Student B has in bold on their worksheet, they score three points, write the missing words in the gaps and move on to the next sentence. If the guess is wrong, they try again for two points and then for one point. This continues until all the third conditional sentences have been guessed. It's then Student B's turn to guess the missing verb phrases in Student A's sentences. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Third Conditional Game - Grammar: Gap-fill, Guessing - Pair Work In this fun third conditional game, students guess missing if-clauses or result clauses in third conditional sentences. Both students have the same third conditional sentences, but where they have words in bold, their partner has gaps and vice versa. Student B starts by reading the first sentence and guessing the if-clause or result clause in the gap. Student B has three chances to guess the clause. If Student B guesses the exact words that Student A has in bold on their worksheet, they score three points and write the missing words in the gap. If the guess is wrong, Student B tries again for two points and then for one point. It's then Student A's turn to guess the missing clause in the second sentence, and so on. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Third Conditional Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions, Writing Sentences from Prompts In this free third conditional speaking activity, students find out what happened to their classmates last week and write third conditional sentences about how things could have been different. First, students read their cards and imagine that the situation on the card happened to them last week. Next, students go around the class finding out what happened to their classmates by asking, 'What happened to you last week?' Their classmate then responds, 'Last week, I...' and describes what happened. After listening, the student asks for their card number and then writes a third conditional sentence about how things could have been different next to the corresponding number on their worksheet. When everyone has finished, go through each situation card and elicit possible third conditional sentences from the class. show less

ESL Third Conditional Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Completing, Asking and Answering Questions, Discussion, Communicative Practice - Group Work In this third conditional speaking activity, students ask, answer and discuss what they would have done in hypothetical past situations. In groups, students take turns picking up a card and completing the question with the third conditional, e.g. 'If you had been able to design your own school curriculum, what subjects would you have included?' The student then asks the hypothetical question to the group members, who each answer in turn. Students then discuss their answers and vote for the one they think is the best or most interesting. Once the group has voted, students write the winning answer on the back of the card. When the groups have finished, go through each third conditional question and have the groups tell the class their answers. show less

ESL Third Conditional Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Guessing, Freer Practice - Group Work In this thought-provoking third conditional game, students try to identify problems from conditional sentences expressing regret. In groups, each student takes a card and thinks about what caused the problem on their card. Students then plan how to express regrets about the situation using the third conditional without saying what the problem is. Next, students take turns talking about their regrets about the problem on their card using the third conditional, expressing at least three regrets for each problem. The other students listen and try to identify the problem. The first student to correctly guess the problem wins the card. If no one guesses correctly, the student expressing the regrets keeps the card. Afterwards, students students take a new card each and repeat the process. The student with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner. show less

ESL Third Conditional Game - Grammar and Speaking: Sentence Completion, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work In this free third conditional game, students first complete sentence prompts about hypothetical past situations and then race to identify who wrote each sentence by asking third conditional questions. First, students complete third conditional sentences on strips any way they like. Working together as a class, all the students then fold up their completed sentences and put them in a box. Next, all the students stand up and take one strip each from the box, e.g. 'If I had gone on holiday last week, I would have gone to the beach.' Each student then forms a third conditional question from the sentence and goes around the class asking their question to find out who wrote it, e.g. 'If you had gone on holiday last week, would you have gone to the beach?' When a student finds the person who wrote the sentence, they write the person's name on the strip, keep it, and take another one from the box. Students repeat the activity until there are no sentences left in the box. The student with the most sentences at the end of the game wins. Finally, students report back to the class on what they found out during the game. show less

ESL Third Conditional Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Running Dictation, Gap-fill - Pair Work In this productive third conditional running dictation activity, students race to dictate a story and then use it to complete third conditional sentences. One student is the reader and the other is the writer. The reader runs to Text A on the wall outside the classroom, reads the first part of the story, tries to remember as much as they can, runs back and dictates the text to their partner who writes it down. This continues until Text A has been fully dictated. Students then swap roles with the new reader dictating Text B to their partner in the same way. Next, students use the story to complete third conditional sentences. For each sentence, students choose two verbs from a box, writing them in their positive or negative third conditional form as appropriate. The first pair of students to complete the third conditional sentences correctly wins. show less

ESL Third Conditional Role-Play - Speaking Activity: Preparing and Delivering a Dialogue, Identifying, Forming Sentences, Freer Practice - Group Work In this creative third conditional activity, students role-play situations where someone made a mistake and needs to accept responsibility. In groups, students prepare a short role-play about a mistake that someone made using eight prompts on strips in their dialogue. Groups then present their role-plays to the class. While the groups are presenting, the other groups listen and hold up a corresponding strip each time they hear one of the eight prompts. After each group's role-play, students make third conditional sentences about the group's story, e.g. 'If Tom had woken up earlier, he wouldn't have missed his flight.' show less

ESL Third Conditional Game - Grammar: Preparing and Delivering a Short Speech, Discussion, Guessing - Group Work In this interesting third conditional activity, students write brief first-person regret speeches for famous people or characters and then play a guessing game to identify who is speaking. First, in teams, students prepare and write two short speeches using the first-person and third conditional. The speeches should express regrets about past actions by widely-known, unnamed, famous people or characters. Next, each team reads one speech in turn to the class. After a team has read out a speech, the students in each team discuss who it could be and write down their guess on a piece of paper. Each team then gives their answer, and the famous person or character is revealed. Teams score one point for each correct guess. The game continues until all the speeches have been given. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Third Conditional Board Game - Grammar and Speaking: Sentence Completion, Asking and Answering Questions, Controlled and Freer Practice - Group Work In this enjoyable third conditional board game, students practice the third conditional by completing prompts and asking and answering questions. Players take turns rolling the dice and moving their counters along the board. When a player lands on a square, they use the clause in the square to make a third conditional sentence. If a player lands on an 'Ask a question' square, they ask a third conditional question to another student, e.g. 'What would you have done if you had woken up at 5 a.m.?' The student then answers the question in sentence form. The other students in the group judge the player's sentence or question. If the sentence or question is grammatically correct and makes sense, the player stays on the square. If a player cannot make a sentence or question, or they complete a sentence or question incorrectly, they go back two squares. The first player to reach the finish square wins the game. show less

ESL Third Conditional Worksheet - Grammar and Reading Exercises: Gap-fill, Unscrambling, Writing Sentences from Prompts, Reading for Detail This useful third conditional worksheet helps students practice forming and using affirmative and negative third conditional sentences. After reading through how to form the third conditional, students practice the structure by completing third conditional sentences with verbs in brackets. Next, students reorder words to make third conditional sentences starting with an if-clause. Finally, students read a story about someone's bad day and write third conditional sentences about it using prompts. show less