• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Verb moods and shifts in voice or mood). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. What is the mood of the verb in this sentence? She would help if she had time. (conditional / indicative / imperative / interrogative) → conditionalPrompt: Is it a statement, a command, a question, a hypothetical, or a wish/demand?
2. First, preheat the oven. Then the flour should be sifted. Which revision avoids the needless shift? (First, preheat the oven. Then the flour is sifted by you. / First, preheat the oven. Then you should be sifting the flour. / First, preheat the oven. Then sift the flour. / First, the oven is preheated. Then sift the flour.) → First, preheat the oven. Then sift the flour.Prompt: Look at the first verb. Is it active or passive? A command or a statement?
3. What is the mood of the verb in this sentence? I wish I were on holiday. (subjunctive / imperative / indicative / interrogative) → subjunctivePrompt: Is it a statement, a command, a question, a hypothetical, or a wish/demand?

• Show a sentence with the grammar point used wrongly and ask what sounds odd.
• Share the objective: Conditionals (zero, first, second, third). Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Choose the verb form that completes the conditional sentence. If they ___ earlier, they would have caught the train.
• Step 1: Zero: if + present, present. First: if + present, will. Second: if + past, would. Third: if + had + participle, would have + participle.
• Step 2: It imagines a different past: if + had + participle, would have + participle (third conditional).
• Step 3: Put it back into the sentence and read it aloud: "If they had left earlier, they would have caught the train."
• Step 4: So the answer is: had left
• Answer: had left
• Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

• Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
• Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

1. Choose the verb form that completes the conditional sentence. If she ___ harder, she will pass. (studied / would study / had studied / studies) → studiesPrompt: Is it always true, likely in the future, imagined now, or imagined about the past?
2. Choose the verb form that completes the conditional sentence. If it rains tomorrow, we ___ the picnic. (would have cancelled / will cancel / would cancel / cancel) → will cancelPrompt: Is it always true, likely in the future, imagined now, or imagined about the past?

• Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
• Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 8 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

• Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

1. Choose the verb form that completes the conditional sentence. If you heat ice, it ___. (melts / would melt / will have melted / melted) → meltsPrompt: Is it always true, likely in the future, imagined now, or imagined about the past?
2. Choose the verb form that completes the conditional sentence. If I ___ you, I would apologise. (am / were / had been / will be) → werePrompt: Is it always true, likely in the future, imagined now, or imagined about the past?

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-8.