Mixed Conditionals

Article excerpt · target grammar marked

If you had grown up in a different community, your sense of in-group loyalty might be completely different today. Equally, if loss aversion were weaker in humans, our ancestors would not have survived the environments that shaped us. The wiring is old. The pause is new.

Grammar Reference · Mixed Conditionals

Mixed conditional (1)

If she had studied ethics, she would be more careful now. — past condition → present result

Mixed conditional (2)

If he were more self-aware, he would not have rationalised it. — present state → past action

Key contrast

If I had known, I would have acted differently. ✓ third / I would be different. ✓ mixed

Common error

If she would have known... ✗ → If she had known... ✓ — never would in the if-clause

01Exercise 1 — Form · Write the Correct Form

Mixed Conditionals

1.If she more about cognitive override, she would be applying it automatically by now.

2.If in-group bias less powerful, humans might not have built the cooperative societies we have today.

3.He a more reliable moral agent today if he had confronted his loss aversion years ago.

4.If she naturally more self-aware, she would not have rationalised that decision so quickly.

5.We better equipped to spot tribe mentality now if someone had taught us about it in school.

6.If Jonathan Haidt his moral foundations research earlier, the policy debate would look very different today.

02Exercise 2 — Transform

rewrite with the new structure

1.He didn't learn about loss aversion early, so he still struggles with it now.

2.She is not a reflective person, which is why she dismissed the thought experiment without thinking.

3.They were never taught about in-group bias, so their culpability judgements are still skewed today.

4.He lacks integrity, which explains why he rationalised his complicity so easily at the time.

03Exercise 3 — About You

in your notebook

Personalise: complete five sentences about yourself using the target grammar.

Mixed Conditionals01EnglishPlans.com