- SUGGESTIONS -
“HAMLET” AND TYPE 3 CONDITIONAL CLAUSES
Aims: to work on Conditional Clauses Type 3
Level: Intermediate/Upper-intermediate/Advanced
Organisation: Pairs
Preparation: Handouts containing 10 sentences – the most important ten actions in the play – using the Present Tense/Past Tense.
Time: 10 minutes
Procedure: Students take turns in reading the sentences and transforming them into Conditional Clauses Type 2. Emphasis must be placed on the idea that although we use the Present Simple to present the actions in a literary work, we are referring to past activities.
Variant: Ask students to rephrase the sentences so that the meaning stays the same.
e.g.
1. Hamlet comes/came home because his father dies/died unexpectedly.
If Hamlet’s father hadn’t died unexpectedly, Hamlet wouldn’t have come home.
Hadn’t his father died unexpectedly, Hamlet wouldn’t have come home.
If it hadn’t been for his father’s unexpected death, Hamlet wouldn’t have come home
Hadn’t it been for his father’s unexpected death, Hamlet wouldn’t have come home
But for his father’s unexpected death, Hamlet wouldn’t have come home.
2. Hamlet meets his father’s ghost and decides to avenge his father’s death.
If Hamlet hadn’t met his father’s ghost, he wouldn’t have decided to avenge his father’s death.
