If the sun were shining, I would go to the beach.

[sadra1400]

"If the sun were shining, I would go to the beach."

Why do we use past continuous tense for the second conditional?

The second conditional formula is: if + past simple, ..., would + infinitive

 

[SoothingDave]

It's the subjunctive mood. Used in this case to express a hypothetical condition that is contrary to fact. The sun is not shining. We know the sun is not shining.

 

[5jj]

The second conditional formula is: if + past simple, ..., would + infinitive

Not quite.

One common second conditional pattern is if + past, would.