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Which sentence is correct? The first conditional or the second conditional?

A: If I don't start packing soon, I will miss the flight. If I didn't start packing soon, I would miss the flight.

B: Relax, it is still midday.

I know that the first conditional is used to talk about things that are possible in the future while the second conditional is used to talk about things which are unreal or imaginary.

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    The answer you were given on ELU explains this adequately. The first sentence is natural if you need to start packing for a journey; the second is grammatical but only makes sense if it refers to a situation in the past.
    – Kate Bunting
    Mar 7, 2022 at 13:47
  • Kate Bunting, It refers to a situation in the present, not a situation in the past.
    – Mohammad Farukh Ahmad
    Mar 7, 2022 at 20:48
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    @Kate Bunting, The second sentence seems to be Conditional Type 2, so why do you say it can make sense if it refers to a situation in the past. it can't make sense in the past. As a Conditianl Type 2 sentence, It can only refer to something that is hypotetchical. If it had been a situation in the past, the sentence would have been: "If I hadn't started packing soon enough, I would have miss the flight."
    – yunus
    Dec 9, 2022 at 13:55
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    @yunus - Your version is incorrect - it should be "If I hadn't started packing soon (early?) enough, I would have missed the flight." My interpretation imagines a first-person narrator looking back at a past situation - at the time they would have thought "If I don't start packing...", but telling the story in the present, they say "If I didn't start packing...".
    – Kate Bunting
    Dec 9, 2022 at 15:26

1 Answer 1

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Correct: If I don't start packing soon, I will miss the flight. (First Conditional)

It refers to a possible future action.

Second Conditional-

The if-clause is in the simple past tense. But The meaning is present, not past.

It refers to something unreal/imaginary.

If I knew his number, I would phone him. (I don't know his number)

If I were rich, I would help him. (I am not rich)

If I won the lottery, I would buy a car.

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