English Conditional Sentences with examples
Hey there I’m Emma from mmmEnglish!
I’ve got a grammar lesson for you today and I’m
really excited to be sharing it with you because
it’s one that you’ve been asking for for quite a while.
We’re talking about conditional sentences in English.
I’m going to go over the basic structure
and the meaning of all conditional sentences in English.
If you’ve studied these sentences before, then this video
is going to be awesome revision for you
but if you’re not so familiar with conditional sentences,
then it’s gonna be an excellent introduction.
So let’s get started!
Sometimes it feels like English grammar can be pretty
loose like
yeah there’s some rules but sometimes they don’t apply.
Sometimes there’s exceptions.
I get it!
I’ve got to teach it! But there are some grammatical
structures in English that follow really clear rules
and the structure of conditional sentences
is nice and clear
which makes it easier for you to feel confident about
the way that you express your thoughts and your ideas
when you speak.
We use conditional sentences to explain what actually
happens, what could happen
so a possible and likely outcome in the future.
We talk about what we wish would happen
so imagining a different outcome for
our present situation. And what might have happened
so thinking about a different outcome
that happened in the past.
Now there are four types of conditional sentences.
They’re all really similar
but they’re not the same.
If I get sick, I go to the doctor.
If I get sick, I will go to the doctor.
If I got sick, I would go to the doctor.
If I had been sick, I would have gone to the doctor.
So let’s talk about what is the same or what’s similar
about all of these sentences. They all use two clauses.
There are two parts to each sentence
separated by a comma
and they all use the conjunction ‘if’.
Just a little reminder that we use conjunctions
in English to join two ideas together in one sentence.
I ate an apple and two desserts.
I like it but I don’t want it.
I’ll do it if you drive me to the cinema later.
So all of these words are really, really tiny
grammatical words but they have an important function.
They’re connecting two ideas together
and conditional sentences
all use ‘if’ to join two ideas together.
In all conditional sentences we have an ‘if’ clause
and a result clause.
So the ‘if’ clause is the event or the situation
that must happen in order for the other thing to happen.
So the result can only happen if the ‘if’ clause occurs
and that is why it’s called a conditional sentence.
A condition is something that you have to do
or a situation that needs to exist
in order for something else to happen.
You can’t get this without squeezing this.
There is a really important relationship
between these two things.
One relies on the other.
Now these sentences, they’re all quite similar
but there are some really clear differences as well.
I mean, check out the verbs.
This is where the main difference between
these conditional sentences are.
It’s all in the verbs, you can see it, right?
And the meaning is different too.
We use each type of sentence in a different situation.
If you haven’t already noticed, we have the zero
conditional, the first conditional,
the second conditional, the third conditional.
And I’m going to go through each type of
conditional sentence now one by one.
So let’s get started with the zero conditional
and I recommend that you take some notes
as we go through all of these examples.
The zero conditional is called the factual conditional.
If I get sick, I go to the doctor.
And it’s one of the easiest to remember because both
clauses are in the present simple tense.
We have the ‘if’ clause with the present simple and then
the present simple in the main result clause as well.
So if this happens, then this is what happens.
We use the zero conditional to talk about habits,
facts and truths.
You can’t argue about these things, right?
With these things, we’re not talking about possibility.
It’s fact.
If you put ice in your drink, it melts.
See? It’s really simple.
So I want you to practise by finishing this sentence
for me. I want you to write your sentence
in the comments so that I can check it.
If I eat…
Remember, present simple, present simple.
Then we have the first conditional
which we used to talk about possible and likely
future outcomes.
If I get sick, I will go to the doctor.
So it’s possible that in the future I’ll get sick
and if that occurs, I will probably go to the doctor.
So we use ‘if’ with the present simple
and ‘will’ with our verb infinitive.
If it’s hot tomorrow, I’ll go for a swim at the beach.
Now am I sure that it will be hot tomorrow?
No but it is summertime here in Australia.
And if it is hot,
it’s highly likely that I will go for a swim.
If you join the Lingoda Language Sprint,
you’ll get lots of English speaking practice.
So now it’s your turn to finish a sentence.
If we leave now…
Complete that sentence in the comments below
and feel free to also pause the video at any time
and write your own conditional sentences down there
for me to check.
Now we have the second conditional and we use it
when we want to imagine
that the present situation is different.
So if I got sick, I would go to the doctor.
This is a hypothetical situation, right?
It’s not real. Do I look sick? I’m not sick.
I’m imagining that the present situation
is different for some reason.
I’m imagining that I’m sick.
Now if that were true, I would go to the doctor.
Now am I really going to the doctor?
Because I’m not actually sick. It’s an unreal situation.
But to express this in English, we use ‘if’
with the past simple
and then ‘would’ and the verb infinitive
in the result clause. So we use the modal verb ‘would’
to show that we’re imagining the result.
Don’t forget that in English, all verbs that follow
modal verbs are in the infinitive form.
If I had more money, I would buy a boat.
Now it’s really common and natural to use contractions
in conditional sentences. I would definitely say
when I’m speaking naturally:
If I had more money, I’d buy a boat.
I’d, he’d, you’d, they’d.
This pronunciation is much more common
in spoken English.
Okay so now it’s your turn to finish this sentence.
If I finished work earlier…
Finish that sentence in the comments.
There are lots of different uses
for the second conditional.
We use it to give advice, to give reasons why we can’t
do something and generally just imagine that
life is different.
So I’m definitely gonna have to go through all of those
different uses in detail in another video very soon.
And the third conditional is the past unreal conditional.
If I had been sick, I would have gone to the doctor.
We use this structure to imagine a different past,
different to the one that actually happened, right?
We use ‘if’ with the past perfect
and ‘would have’ with the past participle.
Just to be clear, the ‘if’ clause did not actually happen
but I’m imagining the result if the past was different.
So in this situation, was I really sick?
I’m not talking about what actually happened,
I’m talking about what could have happened in the past
but didn’t
and what I would have done
if that had happened.
Can you think of a time when this grammar structure
would actually be useful?
When you regret something in the past, something that
happened in the past and you wished that
that result was different.
If we had looked at the weather report,
we would have stayed home!
If I had known you were visiting,
I would have made time to see you.
Okay it’s your turn now.
If I had…
Remember the structure. Let’s do it.
Pause the video if you need to so that you can write
your sentence in the comments below.
So that was an overview
of conditional sentences in English.
Now with all of this in mind, it is possible to use
mixed conditional sentences too
but I think that’s a lesson for another day.
This lesson was a summary or an overview
of the different types of conditional sentences
so if you want me to explain any of them in more detail,
to give you lots of different examples and to share
some practice activities with you then let me know.
Whichever conditional sentence has the most requests
will be the one that I make first so make sure you
put in your request down in the comments below.
I’ll make sure that I link to that lesson right here
once it’s finished but for now,
check out either of these two lessons
and make sure you’re subscribed so you know
when the next lesson’s coming. I’ll see you soon!