Learn how to use second conditional tense sentences
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, I’m Becky. Welcome back to SwedishPod101.com. This is Upper Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 23 - How Busy is Your Swedish Job? In this lesson you’ll learn how to use the second conditional tense. |
| Elin: The conversation takes place at Emma’s office. |
| Becky: It’s between Emma and her employee Simon. They’re using informal Swedish, since they work together. |
| Elin: Great! Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Emma: Simon, är du klar med den där rapporten jag bad dig skriva? |
| Simon: Nej, tyvärr inte. |
| Emma: Varför inte? |
| Simon: Jag skulle ha skrivit den i går, om jag inte hade haft så mycket att göra. |
| Emma: Varför skrev du inte klart den idag då? |
| Simon: Jag skulle ha gjort det, om telefonen inte hade ringt hela tiden. |
| Emma: Okej, men den måste vara klart tills imorgon. |
| Becky: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Emma: Simon, är du klar med den där rapporten jag bad dig skriva? |
| Simon: Nej, tyvärr inte. |
| Emma: Varför inte? |
| Simon: Jag skulle ha skrivit den i går, om jag inte hade haft så mycket att göra. |
| Emma: Varför skrev du inte klart den idag då? |
| Simon: Jag skulle ha gjort det, om telefonen inte hade ringt hela tiden. |
| Emma: Okej, men den måste vara klart tills imorgon. |
| Becky: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Emma: Simon, är du klar med den där rapporten jag bad dig skriva? |
| Emma: Simon, are you done with the report that I asked you to write? |
| Simon: Nej, tyvärr inte. |
| Simon: No, unfortunately not. |
| Emma: Varför inte? |
| Emma: Why not? |
| Simon: Jag skulle ha skrivit den i går, om jag inte hade haft så mycket att göra. |
| Simon: I would have written it yesterday, if I hadn't had so much to do. |
| Emma: Varför skrev du inte klart den idag då? |
| Emma: Why didn’t you finish it today then? |
| Simon: Jag skulle ha gjort det, om telefonen inte hade ringt hela tiden. |
| Simon: I would have done it, if the telephone hadn’t been ringing all the time. |
| Emma: Okej, men den måste vara klart tills imorgon. |
| Emma: Okay, but it has to be done by tomorrow. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Sounds to me like Emma was getting quite upset with Simon for not finishing his tasks on time. |
| Elin: Yes, she sure wasn't happy! |
| Becky: You don’t think she’ll try to fire him, do you? |
| Elin: I’m sure she won’t. |
| Becky: So what are the reasons that might get a person fired? |
| Elin: Well, firstly, the rules about dismissal are outlined in the “Lagen om anställningsskydd”, the “Employment Protection Act”. It varies depending on your contract, but in Sweden you can get fired either because there is a lack of employment opportunities, or for behavioural reasons. |
| Becky: What do you mean by ‘lack of employment opportunities?’ |
| Elin: For example, if a company has low economic growth, or because of a reorganisation. |
| Becky: I see, and what about behavioural reasons? |
| Elin: For example, if the employee is neglecting his or her duties, like turning up late for work numerous times. Or if they are repeatedly behaving inappropriately or unprofessionally with clients. |
| Becky: I see. |
| Elin: But before an employer can fire you for any of these reasons, they have to give several warnings, telling you that your behavior is inappropriate. Also, the dismissal should always be in writing, and be handed to the employee in person. |
| Becky: That’s good to know. Now, let’s move on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is... |
| Elin: klar [natural native speed] |
| Becky: done |
| Elin: klar [slowly - broken down by syllable] klar [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: rapport [natural native speed] |
| Becky: report |
| Elin: rapport [slowly - broken down by syllable] rapport [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att be [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to ask |
| Elin: att be [slowly - broken down by syllable] att be [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att skriva [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to write |
| Elin: att skriva [slowly - broken down by syllable] att skriva [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: i går [natural native speed] |
| Becky: yesterday |
| Elin: i går [slowly - broken down by syllable] i går [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: tyvärr [natural native speed] |
| Becky: unfortunately |
| Elin: tyvärr [slowly - broken down by syllable] tyvärr [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: telefon [natural native speed] |
| Becky: telephone |
| Elin: telefon [slowly - broken down by syllable] telefon [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att ringa [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to ring |
| Elin: att ringa [slowly - broken down by syllable] att ringa [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: hela tiden [natural native speed] |
| Becky: all the time |
| Elin: hela tiden [slowly - broken down by syllable] hela tiden [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last... |
| Elin: tills [natural native speed] |
| Becky: by/until |
| Elin: tills [slowly - broken down by syllable] tills [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Elin: First up is the verb “att ringa”. |
| Becky: Meaning, “to ring”. |
| Elin: That’s right - the Swedish verb “att ringa” was used in the dialog to mean “to ring”. |
| Becky: But it can also been used when we are talking about making a phone call as well, right? |
| Elin: Correct! “Att ringa” can also mean “to call” or “to phone”. |
| Becky: What’s “Martin phones Anna all the time”? |
| Elin: It’s, “Martin ringer Anna hela tiden”. |
| Becky: What about, “Anna calls Lisa everyday”? How would you say that? |
| Elin: “Anna ringer Lisa varje dag”. |
| Becky: Great! Now, let’s move on to the next word. |
| Elin: The next word we’re going to look at is the verb “att be” meaning, “to ask”. |
| Becky: In the dialog, Emma said, “Simon, are you done with the report that I asked you to write” |
| Elin: Which was “Simon, är du klar med den där rapporten jag bad dig skriva”. |
| Becky: But that verb can also mean something else right? |
| Elin: Yes, “att be” can also mean, “to pray”. |
| Becky: So how would I say, “Karin prays every evening”? |
| Elin: Then you would say, “Karin ber varje kväll”. |
| Becky: What about “the Pettersson family prays together before dinner”? |
| Elin: “Familjen Pettersson ber tillsammans innan middagen”. |
| Becky: Great! Now, let’s move on to the grammar! |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: I this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the second conditional tense. The second conditional tense is used to form sentences that describe actions or states that can only occur under certain conditions in the past. There’s more than one way of doing this, but in this lesson, we’ll focus on second conditional tense sentences that follow the same structure as the examples from the dialogue. |
| Elin: For example, when Simon said “I would have written it yesterday, if I hadn’t had so much to do”, Which was “jag skulle ha skrivit den igår, om jag inte hade haft så mycket att göra”. |
| Becky: Maybe we should have the listeners practice that one! |
| Elin: Sounds like a good idea to me! Listeners, repeat after me! |
| Elin: “Jag skulle ha skrivit den igår, om jag inte hade haft så mycket att göra”. |
| Becky: There is also another sentence using second conditional tense in the dialog. |
| Elin: That’s right, when Simon says, “I would have done it, if the telephone hadn’t been ringing all the time”. |
| Becky: What was that? |
| Elin: “Jag skulle ha gjort det, om telefonen inte hade ringt hela tiden”. |
| Becky: Listeners, repeat after Elin! |
| Elin: “Jag skulle ha gjort det, om telefonen inte hade ringt hela tiden”. |
| Becky: Now, let’s examine these second conditional tense sentences in detail, so we can understand their structure. |
| Elin: Ok, we’ll start with the first clause of the sentence. |
| Becky: That’s the clause that describes the actions or states that could only have happened under certain conditions in the past. |
| Elin: Precisely! And if we take the two sentences from the dialog as an example, we have the clauses “jag skulle ha skrivit den igår” meaning “I would have written it yesterday”, and “jag skulle ha gjord det” meaning “I would have done it”. |
| Becky: It seems like these two clauses follow a straight word order. |
| Elin: Yes, they both follow a straight word order, where they start with the subject “jag” meaning “I”, then have the first verb of the sentence. |
| Becky: There seem to be three verbs in this clause. |
| Elin: Yes, in the clause of second conditional tense sentences that describes the actual actions or states that could only have happened under certain conditions, we’ll always find that the auxiliary verbs “skulle” meaning “would” and “ha” meaning “have” are used together with a main verb in its supine form. |
| Becky: That sounds a bit complicated! |
| Elin: Let me break it down a bit, to make it clearer. We’ll start to look at the clause, “jag skulle ha skrivit den igår” which means “I would have written it yesterday” |
| Becky: Ok! |
| Elin: The clause is introduced by the subject “jag” meaning “I”, and that’s followed by the first auxiliary verb “skulle” meaning “would”, and then another auxiliary verb, “ha” which means “have”. |
| Becky: And these two verbs are always present in second conditional tense sentences? |
| Elin: Yes! And then after these verbs, we have the main verb in its supine form. In the clause “jag skulle ha skrivit den igår” meaning “I would have written it yesterday”, this main verb is “skrivit” meaning “written”. |
| Becky: Ok, let’s practice with some more examples. How would you say, “I would have gone to Anna’s party”? |
| Elin: We’ll have to start with the subject, which is “jag” meaning “I”, and follow it with the auxiliary verbs “skulle” meaning “would” and “ha” meaning “have”. |
| Becky: After that, we have the main verb in its supine form, right? |
| Elin: Correct! In this case, the main verb is “gått” which means “gone”, and this is followed by “på Annas fest”, which means “to Anna’s party”. |
| Becky: Okay, now let’s put that together. How do you say, “I would have gone to Anna’s party”? |
| Elin: “Jag skulle ha gått på Annas fest”. Listeners, repeat after me please! |
| Becky: Let’s try another one! How would you say, “I would have traveled to France”? |
| Elin: As before, you’ll have to start with the subject “jag” meaning “I”, and then the two auxiliary verbs “skulle” (would) and “ha” (have). |
| Becky: Then we have the supine form of the verb “to travel”? |
| Elin: Yes, and that’s “rest”, which is followed by “till Frankrike” meaning “to France”. |
| Becky: So altogether, “I would have traveled to France” is... |
| Elin: “Jag skulle ha rest till Frankrike”. Listeners, repeat after me please! |
| Elin: “Jag skulle ha rest till Frankrike”. |
| Becky: Perfect! Now, let’s move on to the second clause of the sentence. This second clause of the sentence is the one that describes a condition that would have enabled the action or states to happen in the past. In the dialog, this clause is “if I hadn’t had so much to do” and “if the telephone hadn’t been ringing all the time” respectively. |
| Elin: That’s right, and those two clauses in Swedish are, “om jag inte hade haft så mycket att göra” and “om telefonen inte hade ringt hela tiden”. |
| Becky: So, both of these are subordinate clauses that are introduced by the conditional conjunction “om” meaning “if”, and the rest of the clause then follows a straight word order, just like the previous clause. |
| Becky: But there is something different about these clauses. |
| Elin: That’s right! Both these clauses include the negation “inte”, meaning “not”. And because they are subordinate, “inte” is placed before the first verb. |
| Becky: Great! Let’s have the listeners practice to get the hang of this! How would you say “ if I hadn’t had so much homework”? |
| Elin: You start with the conditional conjunction “om” meaning “if”, and follow it with the subject of the sentence, “jag” meaning “I”. |
| Becky: And then we’ll have to use the negation. |
| Elin: That’s right. We’ll need to use the negation “inte” meaning “not”, then the verbs “hade” meaning ”had” and “haft” also meaning “had”. |
| Becky: Finally we have the “so much homework” part. |
| Elin: And that’s “så mycket läxor”. |
| Becky: Altogether, “if I hadn’t had so much homework” is? |
| Elin: “om jag inte hade haft så mycket läxor”. Listeners, repeat after me please! |
| Elin: “Om jag inte hade haft så mycket läxor”. |
| Becky: Let’s try one more! How would you say, “if I hadn’t bought an expensive TV”. |
| Elin: We’ll start with the conjunction “om” meaning “if”, followed by the subject “jag” meaning “I”, which is then follow by the negation “inte” meaning “not”. |
| Becky: Then you have the verbs “had” and “bought” . |
| Elin: That’s right, we have “hade” meaning “had” and “köpt” meaning “bought”. Then “en dyr TV” meaning “an expensive TV” part. |
| Becky: So how do you say, “if I hadn’t bought an expensive TV”? |
| Elin: “Om jag inte hade köpt en dyr TV”. |
| Becky: Listeners, repeat after Elin please! |
| Elin: “Om jag inte hade köpt en dyr TV”. |
| Becky: Great! Finally, let’s try putting the different clauses into a full second conditional tense sentence. How would you say,”I would have gone to Anna’s party, if I hadn’t had so much homework”? |
| Elin: “Jag skulle ha gått på Annas fest, om jag inte hade haft så mycket läxor”. |
| Becky: Listeners, repeat after Elin! |
| Elin: “Jag skulle ha gått på Annas fest, om jag inte hade haft så mycket läxor”. |
| Becky: How would you say, “I would have traveled to France, if I hadn’t bought an expensive TV”? |
| Elin: “Jag skulle ha rest till Frankrike, om jag inte hade köpt en dyr TV”. |
| Becky: Ok, remember to check the lesson notes to reinforce what you’ve learned in this lesson. |
Outro |
|---|
| Becky: Okay that’s it for this lesson. Thanks for listening everyone, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Elin: Hej då. |
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