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School in the woods: mixed conditionals: a present state and a past result

This B2 ESL lesson plan teaches the mixed conditional with a present state and a past result through Oregon's Outdoor School, where fifth or sixth graders learn science outdoors.

Grammar
If + past simple for a state that is still true (If I were from Oregon), then would have + past participle for a past result: I would have gone.
Topic
What students do at Outdoor School, from soil and water science to skits and teen cabin leaders, with words such as firsthand, unplug and field guide.
Activities
An explainer, an office argument and a former camper's voice memo, self-checking drills, a chat planning a class trip and a wheel of questions.

What's inside

  1. Chapter 1Warm-up: classroom or campfire?

    • PictureUnlock
    • Open a box and answerOpen the boxUnlock
    • Study the words: school in the woodsVocabularyTry it
    • Look at the pictures and choose the wordChoose by pictureUnlock

  2. Chapter 2Let's read: school without walls

    • Look at the photo: a science class at a creekPictureUnlock
    • Read Harper's explainer on The Why DeskArticleUnlock
    • Read and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
    • Read again and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
    • Match the paragraphs and the headingsMatchUnlock

  3. Chapter 3Let's listen: too short to matter?

    • Listen to Harper and IsaiahListeningTry it
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • Listen and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
    • Listen to the Reader's Rebuttal: Emmanuel's voice memoListeningUnlock
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • Listen and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock

  4. Chapter 4Grammar: If I liked bugs, I'd have gone to camp

    • Study the scheme: If I were from Oregon, I'd have goneGrammar schemeTry it
    • Choose the correct optionChoose the optionUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps: past simple after if, would have in the resultFill in the gapsTry it
    • Fill in the table: past simple after if, would have in the resultFill in the tableUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer: what does it mean?QuizUnlock
    • Put the words in the correct orderUnjumbleUnlock

  5. Chapter 5Let's talk: pack your rubber boots

    • Choose the right replies: plan a class tripChatTry it
    • Spin the wheel and answer: school in the woodsSpin the wheelUnlock

  6. Chapter 6Homework

    • Match the words and the meaningsMatchUnlock
    • Unscramble the wordsAnagramUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps with the lesson's wordsFill in the gapsUnlock
    • Find the matching pairs: words and meaningsMemory gameUnlock
    • Choose the correct option: new sentencesChoose the optionUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps: past simple after if, would have in the resultFill in the gapsUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer: which sentence is correct?QuizUnlock
    • Put the words in the correct order: new sentencesUnjumbleUnlock
    • Choose the correct option: a school newsletterChoose the optionUnlock
    • Drag the words into the gaps: Isaiah answers EmmanuelDrag and dropUnlock

33 exercises in 6 chapters. Start a 7-day free trial to open all of them, copy any part into your own lessons, and teach the lesson live.

Vocabulary

12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

  • the great outdoors
  • firsthand
  • field guide
  • city kid
  • outgoing
  • confidence
  • attendance
  • skit
  • lanyard

Grammar: mixed conditionals: a present state, a past result

This mixed conditional runs the other way from lesson 2's. The if-clause changes something that is still true now, and the result is something that didn't happen in the past: If I were from Oregon, I would have gone to Outdoor School. Learners ask whether the state is still true, then pair the past simple with would have + past participle.

If I were from Oregon, I would have gone to Outdoor School.

A mixed conditional: the if-clause changes a state that is still true now, and the result is in the past. Neither part is true: I'm not from Oregon, and I didn't go.

If + past simple, would have + past participle

The if-clause takes the past simple of a state: were, liked, knew, had, could. The result takes would or wouldn't have + past participle, the same for every person: If she knew more about birds, she would have identified the owl. With the result first, there's no comma.

Two times in one sentence

PartFormExample
if-clause: changes a state that is still true nowif + past simple (were, liked, knew, had, could, didn't…)If I were from Oregon, … (I'm not from Oregon.)
result: what didn't happen in the pastwould / wouldn't have + past participle… I would have gone to Outdoor School. (I didn't go.)
the result firstno commaI would have gone to Outdoor School if I were from Oregon.

Every person

PersonIf-clause: still true nowResult: in the past
IIf I weren't so shy,I would have asked more questions.
youIf you were from Oregon,you would have gone in sixth grade.
heIf he liked bugs,he would have enjoyed the trip.
sheIf she knew more about birds,she would have identified the owl.
itIf our school were in Oregon,it would have sent us to Outdoor School.
weIf we lived near the coast,we would have explored tide pools as kids.
theyIf they didn't love the outdoors,they wouldn't have come back as cabin leaders.

Still true now, or only true then?

If I weren't so shy, I would have asked a question means I'm still shy. If the state was true only at that time, switch to the third conditional: If I hadn't been so tired that day, I would have asked a question.

Still true now, or only true then?

Use the past simple after if when the state is still true now: If I weren't so shy (I still am), I would have asked a question. If it was true only at that time, use the third conditional: If I hadn't been so tired that day, I would have asked a question.

Questions and short answers

Questions put would before the subject and keep have + participle: Would you have gone if you were from Oregon? What would you have done if you weren't so shy? Short answers end with have: Yes, I would have. No, I wouldn't have.

QuestionAnswer
Would you have gone if you were from Oregon?Yes, I would have. / No, I wouldn't have.
What would you have done if you weren't so shy?I would have joined the skit.

Two mixed conditionals compared

Lesson 2's type goes from a past cause to a present result: If I hadn't moved to Pittsburgh, I would live in Albuquerque now. This one goes from a present state to a past result: If he liked bugs, he would have gone to camp.

a state now → a result in the past

  • if + past simple, would have + past participle
  • If I were from Oregon, I would have gone to Outdoor School.
  • If he liked bugs, he would have gone to camp.

a cause in the past → a result now

  • if + had + past participle, would + base form
  • If I hadn't moved to Pittsburgh, I would live in Albuquerque now.
  • If she had gone to Outdoor School, she would know the names of more trees today.

No would after if

Keep would out of the if-clause (not If I would be from Oregon), and after would write have + past participle, not would had gone or would have ask. If I were is the safe choice in writing; If I was is common in speech.

No would after if

Never put would in the if-clause (not: If I would be from Oregon). After would, write have + the past participle (not: would had gone, would have go). For a result in the past, would + base form is wrong (not: I would go there when I was eleven). In writing, If I were is the safe choice; If I was is common in speech. Short forms: I'd have, she'd have, wouldn't have.

Common mistakes

  • If I would be from Oregon, I would have gone.

    If I were from Oregon, I would have gone.

    no would in the if-clause

  • If I were from Oregon, I would go there when I was eleven.

    If I were from Oregon, I would have gone there when I was eleven.

    a past result: would have + past participle

  • If he liked bugs, he would had enjoyed camp.

    If he liked bugs, he would have enjoyed camp.

    would + have, never would had

  • If she weren't so shy, she would have ask more questions.

    If she weren't so shy, she would have asked more questions.

    have + the past participle

At The Why Desk

  • If Harper were from Oregon, she would have gone to Outdoor School.
  • If Isaiah liked bugs, he would have gone to summer camp.
  • If he weren't so stubborn, he would have agreed with Harper.
  • If Harper read instructions, she wouldn't have gotten glue on Isaiah's desk.
  • If Outdoor School didn't matter, teens wouldn't have served as cabin leaders for decades.
  • Would you have gone if you were from Oregon?

More lessons on this grammar: Third and mixed conditionals lessons and exercises

Try the mixed conditional exercises

Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.

More exercises

What's in the lesson

  • 18 auto-checked exercises
  • 6 games
  • 1 article
  • 1 grammar scheme
  • 1 set of word cards
  • 2 audio clips
  • 2 pictures
  • 2 transcripts

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

  • change a present state in your mind and give its past result: If Harper were from Oregon, she would have gone to Outdoor School.
  • check that the state is still true before using the past simple: If I weren't so shy, I would have asked more questions.
  • ask and answer about it: Would you have gone if you were from Oregon? – Yes, I would have.
  • tell the two mixed conditionals apart: If I were braver, I would have tried the zip line, but If I had tried it, I would be braver now
  • argue whether a few days outdoors matter: If Outdoor School didn't matter, high school students wouldn't have served as cabin leaders for decades.

Lesson 4 closes Learning reimagined, unit 1 of English B2.2 · Culture and Society. Lesson 2 joined a past cause to a present result; this lesson turns the mixed conditional around, with the second conditional's past simple and the third conditional's would have. Lesson 5 opens Work-life balance with be required to. A program open to Oregon's public school students, and missed by everyone who grew up elsewhere, invites If I were from Oregon, I would have gone.

Students open boxes of questions about school trips, phones and learning outdoors, then learn twelve words, from identify and unplug to skit and lanyard, with pictures and audio. They read Harper's explainer on Outdoor School, then hear her argue with Isaiah, a city kid who calls a few days too short to matter, and Emmanuel, 52, from Oregon, tell how a cabin leader helped him as a shy sixth grader; both are AI-voiced. The grammar chapter has the scheme and five self-checking drills, among them a table that turns two facts into one sentence. In the speaking chapter, students plan a class trip with Doris in a chat and spin a wheel of questions about school in the woods.

All ten homework tasks check themselves: a word match, an anagram, gaps with the lesson's words and a memory game, then new sentences to complete, typed gaps, a quiz on correct sentences, word order, a principal's newsletter about a two-day trip and Isaiah's answer to Emmanuel with words to drag in.

Grammar:
mixed conditionals · present state, past result · if + past simple, would have + past participle · If I were…, I would have… · conditionals compared
Topic:
Oregon's Outdoor School · outdoor education · learning science outdoors · school trips · teen cabin leaders · learning reimagined · The Why Desk

Teaching tips

  • Collect two facts from each student, one still true and one past: I can't swim. I didn't join the swim team. A partner joins them into one sentence: If you could swim, you would have joined the team.
  • Ask about students' best school trip before the reading. Then they read to find what Oregon's fifth or sixth graders do outdoors and who leads their cabins.
  • Play the office dialogue twice: first to decide whether Isaiah changes his mind, then to catch every If I liked… or If I weren't… line with the past result that follows it.
  • Ask “Still true?” after every if-clause. If it is, the past simple stays; if the state ended that day, students switch to the third conditional: If I hadn't been tired that day…

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The whole course: English B2.2 · Culture and Society

32 more lessons for adults at B2 in American English, with the same Why Desk team in Pittsburgh. Each lesson answers one question about how Americans learn, work, travel and remember, from the law behind the 40-hour week to the oral histories of StoryCorps. Learners link ideas in formal writing, report what is said and believed, and pack more into a sentence with participle and relative clauses. The practice exercises check themselves.See the course

  1. Unit 1 Learning reimagined

    adjective suffixes and negative prefixes, mixed conditionals, provided that and on condition that

    1. Lesson 1College for farmers' kids?Adjective suffixes and negative prefixes
    2. Lesson 2One cousin, one video, millions of learnersMixed conditionals: a past cause, a result now
    3. Lesson 3A college that says yesConditional linkers: provided that, on condition that, assuming, otherwise
    4. Lesson 4 · you're hereSchool in the woodsMixed conditionals: a present state, a past result

  2. Unit 2 Work-life balance

    be required to and be entitled to, present and perfect participle clauses, participle clauses after conjunctions

    1. Lesson 5Who decided a week is 40 hours?Formal rules: be required to, be entitled to, be exempt from
    2. Lesson 6A paid year off: rest or research?Present participle clauses for time and reason
    3. Lesson 7Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin?Perfect participle clauses: having done and having been done
    4. Lesson 8Why is the first Monday of September a day off?Participle phrases after conjunctions

  3. Unit 3 Turning points

    reduced relative clauses, preposition + which and whom, which for a whole clause, noun + preposition

    1. Lesson 9The keyboard that opened the officeReduced relative clauses: -ing and the past participle
    2. Lesson 10Earthrise: the photo that changed how we see EarthPreposition + which and whom
    3. Lesson 11A city of white palaces for six monthsSentence relative clauses: which for a whole clause
    4. Lesson 12The count that took eight years?Noun + preposition: a need for, a solution to, access to

  4. Unit 4 News and truth

    although, whereas and while, the impersonal passive, despite and however, is said to have

    1. Lesson 13A newspaper of their ownLinkers of contrast: although, even though, whereas and while
    2. Lesson 14Bat-people on the Moon?The impersonal passive: It is said that…
    3. Lesson 15Read like a fact-checkerLinkers of contrast: despite, in spite of, however and even so
    4. Lesson 16Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree?Passive reporting verbs: is said to have done

  5. Unit 5 Travel that gives back

    so as to, in order to and so that, modifying comparatives, linkers of reason and result, verb + object + preposition + -ing

    1. Lesson 17Seven rules for the wild?Linkers of purpose: to, in order to, so as to, so that
    2. Lesson 18A lottery to see firefliesModifying comparatives and superlatives
    3. Lesson 19Sunrise with the turtlesLinkers of reason and result
    4. Lesson 20Volunteer on vacation?Verb + object + preposition + -ing

  6. Unit 6 Sport and society

    verb + noun collocations, what phrasal verb particles mean, a for-and-against essay, nouns from phrasal verbs

    1. Lesson 21The college team that changed disability sportVerb + noun collocations
    2. Lesson 22When women played pro baseballPhrasal verbs: what the particles mean
    3. Lesson 23Who needs a referee?The for and against essay: plan and linkers
    4. Lesson 24The comeback of Jim ThorpeNouns from phrasal verbs

  7. Unit 7 Buildings and heritage

    past participle clauses, quantifier + of which and of whom, report language, turn out and prove

    1. Lesson 25Homes built into the cliffsPast participle clauses with a passive meaning
    2. Lesson 26A house over a waterfallQuantifier + of which and of whom
    3. Lesson 27From factory to art museumReport language: headings, impersonal style, recommendations
    4. Lesson 28The towers the city tried to pull downTurn out and prove + to-infinitive or that clause

  8. Unit 8 Generations

    adverb + adjective collocations, three-part phrasal verbs, negative and echo questions, prepositional phrases

    1. Lesson 29Who decides where a generation ends?Adverb + adjective collocations
    2. Lesson 30Music students living in a retirement home?Three-part phrasal verbs
    3. Lesson 31Conversations kept for historyNegative questions and echo questions
    4. Lesson 32A day for grandparentsFixed prepositional phrases

Questions about this lesson

What is a mixed conditional?
A mixed conditional is an if-sentence that mixes a present and a past time. One type imagines a present state as different and shows a past result: If I were from Oregon, I would have gone to Outdoor School. The other imagines a different past with a result now: If I hadn't moved to Pittsburgh, I would live in Albuquerque now. The B2 lesson School in the woods on edio.ai teaches the first type.
How do you form a mixed conditional with a past result?
Use if + past simple, then would have + past participle: If Isaiah liked bugs, he would have gone to summer camp. The past simple describes a state that is still true (he still doesn't like bugs), and would have + participle names what didn't happen. With the result first, drop the comma: I would have gone if I were from Oregon. The scheme in School in the woods on edio.ai shows it for every person.
What are some examples of mixed conditionals with a present state?
Four from School in the woods on edio.ai: If Harper were from Oregon, she would have gone to Outdoor School. If he weren't so stubborn, he would have agreed with Harper. If Harper read instructions, she wouldn't have gotten glue on Isaiah's desk. If Outdoor School didn't matter, teens wouldn't have served as cabin leaders for decades. Each if-clause turns around a fact about now, and each result is about the past.
What's the difference between the two types of mixed conditional?
They swap which half is past and which is present. One puts a past cause with a result now (If I hadn't moved to Pittsburgh, I would live in Albuquerque now); the course teaches it in One cousin, one video, millions of learners. The other puts a present state with a past result: If I were from Oregon, I would have gone. That's the type in School in the woods on edio.ai.
Is it “If I were from Oregon, I would go” or “I would have gone”?
For a past result, it's I would have gone: a result in the past takes would have + participle. If I were from Oregon, I would go there when I was eleven is wrong, because age eleven is over. Would go fits a result now or later instead: If I were from Oregon, I would go hiking every weekend. The scheme of School in the woods on edio.ai lists this slip with three others.
What is Outdoor School in Oregon?
Outdoor School is Oregon's program of outdoor science for fifth or sixth graders. Students at public and charter schools can go once, for three to six days, and study soil, water, plants, animals and habitats firsthand, in cabins, forests and on beaches. High school students often serve as cabin leaders. It began in the late 1950s, and since the 2017-18 school year the state has paid for it, so families pay nothing. School in the woods on edio.ai describes it.
Does Outdoor School work?
That's debated. A Portland State University study found that Multnomah County students who went to Outdoor School were more likely to show up to school afterward, but that's a link, not proof that the program caused it. In School in the woods on edio.ai, Harper points to the teens who come back as cabin leaders, Isaiah asks what a few days can change, and Emmanuel, a former camper, answers him.
How do I teach mixed conditionals with a present state to B2 students?
Start with a fact about now and one about then: Harper is from Albuquerque. She didn't go to Outdoor School. Students join them, asking “Is it still true?” before they choose the past simple. School in the woods on edio.ai moves from Harper's explainer and the office argument to the scheme, a gap-fill, a table of facts, a meaning quiz and word order.
What's a good game for practicing the mixed conditional?
Play Hindsight: one student tells a small past mishap (I forgot my umbrella and got soaked), and the others answer from who they are: If I were you, I would have checked the forecast. If I weren't so forgetful, I would have reminded you. For speaking, the wheel in School in the woods on edio.ai asks students to finish If I weren't so…, I would have… and tell the story behind it.
What's good homework for the mixed conditional?
Good homework says what is still true before each gap: My brother doesn't like crowds. If he ___ (like) them, he would have come to the parade yesterday. That rules out the third conditional. All ten homework tasks in School in the woods on edio.ai check themselves, ending with a principal's newsletter about a class trip and Isaiah's answer to Emmanuel.
How do you practice the mixed conditional one-to-one?
Compare childhoods: the teacher and the student each name something that is still true about them (I'm afraid of heights, I live far from the sea) and say what it kept them from doing as kids: If I lived near the sea, I would have learned to surf. The chat in School in the woods on edio.ai works without a partner: Doris, a city kid, plans a class trip with the student.
Are there interactive exercises for the mixed conditional?
Yes. With no account, this page plays three parts of School in the woods, a B2 lesson on edio.ai: Harper and Isaiah's argument over whether a few days outdoors can matter, a gap-fill that pairs the past simple with would have and the chat that plans a class trip with Doris. The other drills need an account.
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