Using "Unless" in The Past Unreal Conditional

In negative sentences, we can have two options:

We can negate both, the IF Clause and the MAIN Clause.

Example:  If I hadn't worked a lot, I wouldn't have been able to buy my house. 

Nevertheless, we can use the word "unless" followed the IF Clause in affirmative way, keeping the same meaning of the sentence.

Example: Unless I had worked a lot, I wouldn't have been able to buy my house.

The Past Unreal Conditional explained easily

Why is The Past Unreal Conditional called Unreal?  

It is not called Unreal because it is an unreal situation, it is called Unreal because it is an action that cannot already be done.

Why is it impossible to do this action?

It is not possible to do the action, because the moment when was possible to do it, is over.

Let's see an example:

If I had known, I would have called you.

• In the previous sentence, we can see that the person who talks cannot already call to his/her listener, because he/she didn't get on time some information.

• If the person who talks had got the information, he/she would have called him/her listener. 

Web site to practice The Past Unreal Conditional

If we want to practice the Third Conditional, we can see this page, where we have some examples and we can check the answers out.

http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/third-conditional-exercise-1.html

All Conditionals in a image

An image where we can see all conditionals, including the Third Conditional

Third Conditional with "Once Upon a Time"

This video is a little bit repetitive, but it is another example how Past Unreal Conditionals are used in the real life.

The movie: The curious case of Benjamin Button

In this short video we can watch some examples of Past Unreal Conditional.

Past Unreal Conditional grammar video

Let's see a short video explaining grammatically the Past Unreal Conditional.

Examples Past unreal Conditionals

Let’s see some examples:

1. If I had gone to the beach, I would have tanned.
2. If he had kicked the ball stronger, he could have scored a unbelievable goal.
3. If you had been more disciplined, you might have enrolled in the army.

We can make the same sentences with the following contractions, the meaning will be the same and these are grammatically correct, let’s see:

1. If I’d gone to the beach, I would’ve tanned.
2. If he’d kicked the ball stronger, he could’ve scored an unbelievable goal.
3. If you’d been more disciplined, you might’ve enrolled in the army.

It is important to mention that after the IF Clause we must put a comma to separate both clauses, it is due to that between the IF Clause and the MAIN Clause we must make a little pause, in this way, the sentence has sense.

Past Unreal Conditionals

Grammatically, the Past Unreal Conditionals have two important elements: the IF Clause and the MAIN Clause. 

IF Clause + Main Clause = Past Unreal Conditional = Third Conditional.

The IF Clause is formed by: IF and a sentence in Past Perfect.

IF Clause + Past Perfect = IF Clause

The Main Clause  is formed by: Would have / Could have / Might have and a Past Participle.

Would have + Past Participle = Main Clause.
Could have + Past Participle = Main Clause.
Might have + Past Participle = Main Clause.

Past Unreal Conditionals: Overview

The past tense is sometimes used to refer to an unreal situation, although the verb tense is in the past, we are talking about something that did not happen.