If I don't start packing soon, I will miss the flight.

[Aran.]

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.

 

[emsr2d2]

Please note that I have changed your thread title. Titles should be unique, relevant to the thread and should include some/all of the words/phrases you are asking us to look at. Your question or request should appear only in the main body of your post.

If this is a real situation, only sentence A works.

 

[Tarheel]

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Well, there are two sentences after A . The first one is perfectly good. As for the second one, maybe Aran is looking for something like:

If I hadn't started packing when I did I would have missed the flight.

 

[emsr2d2]

Apologies, logically I assumed that the two sentences in question were labelled A and B. As Tarheel says, only the first of the two works for a real situation.