Learn English Grammar: How to use 'If I had...'

Can you think of an example of a time in your life when if you had done something a little differently, life would have been a little bit better? Of course you can. But how do you express that in English? In this lesson, I will teach you how to use the structure "if I had" for when we want to give an excuse for not doing something or an explanation for how we would have done things differently. Don't wait until tomorrow to say "If I had known that I would learn so much, I would have watched this lesson." Do it now! Then, practice your new knowledge by doing the quiz, and you'll never get into trouble again!

TRANSCRIPT

Well, this is what Barry said, okay? So you notice that the speech marks -- this is the actual words of my friend Barry. "If I had known that Chelsea were playing at home, I would have gone to seen them." Okay? "If I had known that Chelsea" -- so he's here; he's in the present, and he's looking back to a point in the past, and he's saying if at this point here he had known that Chelsea, a football team, were playing at home, at Stamford Bridge, he would have gone there. But at the time, he did not know, so he didn't. He did something else. Okay? "If I had known, I would've done something else." So at that time, Barry did not know that Chelsea were playing at home, so he made a different decision.

Now, the form that this takes -- we have "if" plus our subject. In this case, "I", it's Barry, the subject, "had" plus past participle. Here, it's "known", okay? But we can use lots of other past participles with this phrase, the "had" and then "known" thing.

Okay. So what do we use it for? Well, it's used to talk about how a decision would have been different in the past. So I'm sure you can all think of examples of times in your life where if you had done something a little different, life would have maybe been a little bit better. Okay? My top tip for you -- you want to try to lead a life with no regrets, okay? So make lots of good decisions. Don't worry, okay? Because it's easier to think about what we didn't do than what we did do. So take action. Get involved.

Now, here are some past participle forms of verbs that are good to use with this phrase. So let's go. Let's do some together. "If I had seen Barry, I would've given him his ticket." Okay? So "if I had" -- past participle -- "seen" -- and then the rest of the phrase -- "Barry, I would have done this." Okay? "If I had caught the ball, we would have won the cricket match." Okay? So same structure again. "If I had" and then "would have". "If I had caught the ball, we would have won the game." "If I had gone to the stadium, I would have seen my favourite player." Okay? So "seen", again, is in the past tense. "Invited." "If I had invited more friends to my party, we would've had a brilliant night." Okay? "If I had" in the first part of the sentence, and then "would have" in the second. "If I had invited more friends to my party, we would've had a better night." Good. "Moved." "If I had moved to Tokyo, I would have had a very different life." Okay? So this works in two parts: "if I had", and then our little verb, and then the result -- what would have been different. Okay? Not too complicated.

Now, "been" is an interesting one because we can use it with different emotional states. So "If I had been kinder to Billy, he might have been happier." Okay? Or "If I had been more bold, I might have gone to New York." Okay? Again, these two parts of the sentence. "If I had spoken" -- okay, so it's in the past tense -- "If I said spoken to my friend, he would have come to the football match. Okay? We could use "decided" here for Barry. "If Barry had decided to read the newspaper in the morning, he would have gone to the football match." "Done." "If I had done my homework, I would have done better in my test." Okay? So we're here -- we're in the present, but we're looking back at the past. If there I had done more homework, okay, we'd have a different outcome -- different result -- the result is better in the test.

[haiduong]

Your bristish accent makes me feel comfortable.

[miguelfagundez]

Great lesson! If I had learned english when I was child, I would have understood my favourites series without subtitles..

[isaacairoes]

Amazing vídeo. If  I had studied english harder when I was younger I would have been better in english today,

[SabirTV]

If I had started to learn English earlier, my English would have been better now... Thanks a lot Benj!

[qaqaq]

Thank you for your lessons! They helps me in improoving my english

[ceinfoleiceinfolei]

if I had not seen your video, I would not have got 100 in the test! thank you so much my teacher!

[julianm]

Hey Benjamin it was a nice Video and really useful keep it up your nice job on YouTube well done.

[drogbad.]

If I had found this video before, I would have improved English more.

[stanislavkody]

I had been looking for answer and i found it. Thank you

[Feelelegant]

Had I not watched your video, I wouldn't have improved my usage of " If I had ".

[sirinsaidemre]

You and Adam are great! I love your lessons, Greetings from Turkey!

[zdenkaglobocnik]

If, I had learned english every day, it was big dill every one! Benjamin you are Nb. ONE.

[rodrigocabral]

If I had watched this lesson before, I would have learned something very important. Thank you for the lesson!!

[rvjyrjg]

nice voice and accent to listen to and I have learned more because I have more concentration to study, thank you

[DuSTeR]

if i study from this site now, i would be better in the future!

[legaleagle]

Putting it another way, we use this construction when we are talking about a contrary-to-fact situation in the past: If I had grown up in England (but I didn't), I would speak with a British accent like Benjamin's.

[ns-smwo]

you are the best english teacher ever....wtg

[nuranozdil]

You are also second favourite teacher.Thanks very much.

[audricholid]

Thank u, this what I looking for, now i could use if i had, thank you

[mimic]

This lesson hits the spot..thank a lot.