Use the second conditional for imagined situations now or in the future, which are unreal or unlikely: If I had more time, I would travel. Form: if + Past Simple, would + base verb. The past form doesn't mean past time here: it means imagined.
If I had more time, I would travel.
The real path stays below: you don't have time. Above it runs an imagined path, and that's where the second conditional lives.
| The if-part | if + Past Simple: If I had more time |
|---|---|
| The result | would / wouldn't + base verb: I would travel |
| Also in the result | could or might: I could travel, I might travel |
| With be | were for every person in careful English: If I were you, If she were here. Was is common in speech. |
If I lived by the sea, I'd swim every day.
Something that isn't true now, and what would be different.
If I won the lottery, I'd buy a house.
It could happen in theory, but you don't really expect it.
If I were you, I'd take the job.
Imagining yourself in the other person's place.
Common expressions worth learning as they are.
If I _____ rich, I'd buy a boat.
From always true to an imagined past.
Paste an email or an essay. Clarigram marks the mistakes you actually make, shows the rule behind each one as a picture, and builds your practice from them.
Both are used. If I were is the traditional form, expected in formal writing and exams; if I was is common in everyday speech. In the phrase If I were you, always use were.
In conditionals, the past form shows distance from reality, not past time. If I had time means I don't have time now.