Alternate Universe Board Game

Ah, the joys of discussing impossible past hypotheticals. I always get excited when I get to teach the third conditional to my students because I think it’s really neat how a simple grammatical structure can allow us to talk about what could have happened had everything been different. Is it the most productive or fruitful type of discussion? No. But it is a philosophical one! And using language to have some philosophical discussions is a great way to connect to people, to make friends or get closer to an acquaintance. I tell my students all this and more, but they don’t ever get as excited about it as I do. Maybe that’s because they never got to use this third conditional board game?

The concept is simple, but can be tailored to suit your specific needs. Students choose an alternate universe in the furthest left column as their starting position. At each turn, they must make their way across the board to the finish line by moving in any direction. That means yes, they could move up or down, in order to reach a specific verb or avoid others. The first student to get across the board to the finish line wins. While marked as a third conditional board game, you might also have some luck using it as a mixed conditionals worksheet. We have also chosen all the verbs for their irregular qualities, adding a slight irregular verb review aspect to the game.