NDA (II) 2024 General Ability Test · Question 22 of 141

Correct — A, 'if you found your lost toy?'. The main clause 'What would you do' fixes this as a second (unreal/hypothetical) conditional, and the second conditional pairs 'would + base verb' with an if-clause in the past simple — hence 'if you found'. The if-clause never carries 'will' or 'would'.

• (b)if you will have found your lost toy? — The if-clause of a conditional never takes a future form; 'will have found' is doubly wrong for a hypothetical condition.
• (c)if you would found your lost toy? — 'would' does not belong in the if-clause, and it cannot be followed by 'found' (past participle) — the second conditional uses the plain past 'found' with no 'would'.
• (d)if you have find your lost toy? — 'have find' is ungrammatical (it should be 'have found'), and the present perfect anyway does not fit the hypothetical frame set by 'would do'.

The second (hypothetical) conditional pairs 'would + base verb' in the main clause with an 'if + past simple' clause to talk about unreal or hypothetical situations; 'will/would' never appears in the if-clause.

• Putting 'will' or 'would' inside the if-clause of a conditional.
• Using the present perfect or a malformed 'have find' where the plain past 'found' is required.

Asked as a sentence-completion testing the if-clause form of the second (hypothetical) conditional.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the correct completion: What would you say if she ______ you the truth?

  • (a)will tell
  • (b)told
  • (c)would tell
  • (d)has told

  Answer(b) told — the second conditional takes the past simple in the if-clause.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the correct completion: If I ______ rich, I would travel the world.

  • (a)will be
  • (b)am
  • (c)were
  • (d)would be

  Answer(c) were — the hypothetical second conditional uses the past subjunctive 'were' in the if-clause.