Second Conditional: unreal possibility or dream

The second conditional is like the first conditional. We are still thinking about the future. We are thinking about a particular condition in the future, and the result of this condition. But there is not a real possibility that this condition will happen. For example, you do not have a cinema ticket. Is it possible to watch in the cinema? No! No ticket, no watch! But maybe you will buy a ticket in the future. So you can think about watching in the future, like a dream. It's not very real, but it's still possible.

IF	condition	result
	past simple	WOULD + base verb
If	I had the ticket	I would watch the movie.

Notice that we are thinking about a future condition. We use the past simple tense to talk about the future condition. We use WOULD + base verb to talk about the future result. The important thing about the second conditional is that there is an unreal possibility that the condition will happen.

Here are some more examples:

IF	condition	result
	past simple	WOULD + base verb
If	I met Mary	I would be happy.
If	Ram became rich	he would buy a new car.
If	it snowed next July	would you be surprised?
If	it snowed next July	what would you do?

result	IF	condition
WOULD + base verb		past simple
I would be happy	if	I met Mary.
Ram would buy a new car	if	he became rich.
Would you be surprised	if	it snowed next July?
What would you do	if	it snowed next July?