How to use UNLESS in spoken English Advanced English Lesson
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Do you know how to use the word unless?
Let’s talk about it.
Are there any words in English that you think,
“I understand it when she says it, but I just
can’t use it.”
Maybe one of those words is the word unless.
If it’s difficult for you to naturally use
the word unless, this lesson is definitely
for you.
I like to call the word unless a lynch pin
word.
These are two lynch pins.
If you take out that pin, it’s bad news for
your machine, it’s not going to work, it’s
probably going to fall apart.
The word unless is a lynch pin word in your
sentence.
If you take out that word, your sentence doesn’t
have much meaning.
Your sentence kind of falls apart, so you
need to know how to use it accurately.
Native English speakers use lynch pin words
all the time.
Words like happen, actually, unless, though.
If you’d like to learn how to use some more
of these lynch pin words, you can check out
the videos I made up here featuring those
words.
It’s your lucky day.
All right, let’s get started on how to use
the word unless.
Imagine this wonderful scenario.
I’ve invited you to come over to my house
for dinner at 6:00 PM.
I’m going to make one of my favorite winter
soups because it’s a chilly day.
It’s a great day to eat soup, and you’re really
excited.
Nothing is going to stop you from coming.
Well, except what might stop you from coming
to dinner at my house?
Think about this.
You might say, “I’ll come over to your house
unless I get sick.”
Maybe at the last minute, all of a sudden
you get sick, and you call me and say, “Oh,
I’m sorry I can’t come.”
Okay, that’s an unusual scenario.
Hopefully that won’t happen at the last second,
but this is an exception.
You think, “Nothing is stopping me from having
dinner at Vanessa’s house.
I am going to come no matter what.
Well, there is an exception, unless I get
sick.”
We could also reverse that sentence and say,
“Unless I get sick, I’ll come over to your
house for dinner.”
We can put it at the beginning of the sentence
or at the end of the sentence.
This exception can be moved.
Today we’re going to look at some positive
sentences, some famous quotes that use unless,
some negative sentences and some questions.
Do you think that we can use the word unless
in a question?
You’ll have to wait till the end of this lesson
to find out.
Let’s start with some positive sentences.
Have you ever been on a blind date?
I haven’t, but I have some friends who have
been on dates with people who they met online,
which is pretty common nowadays.
Usually you can tolerate a two hour dinner
with pretty much anyone.
You can have a conversation even if it’s not
the most amazing experience, but let’s imagine
that one of your friends is extremely picky.
Your friend might say to you, “I’m going to
leave the date unless he has a Ferrari.
It doesn’t matter if he’s nice, friendly,
kind, handsome.
Nope.
Only if he has a Ferrari will I stay.”
Your friend is kind of planning in advance
to leave the date unless he has a Ferrari.
That’s kind of a crazy example, but you get
the idea.
A couple of months ago, I started to volunteer
in an organization called the Free Forest
School.
If you live in the US and you have kids, you
should check it out.
Check it out online to see if there’s a branch
near you.
It’s a lot of fun.
The basic idea is that, kids and parents go
to nature and have free play for a couple
hours.
It’s just a chance to be in nature.
The kids can play together and build their
sense of curiosity and independence, but there
is an exception.
We need to go if it’s raining, if the sun
is shining, if it’s snowing, but we also have
some fair rules.
One of those is, we’ll meet up unless it’s
negative 10 degrees.
We just decided that this is too cold and
especially in the area where we’re from, this
isn’t typical weather, so a lot of people
don’t have the right clothes for that kind
of weather.
If it’s negative 10 degrees, we will cancel
our meetup.
This is really unusual.
This is an exception, so we could say, “We
will meet up unless it’s negative 10 degrees.”
Do you love studying English?
Will nothing stop you from continuing to study
English?
Well, I bet there’s one thing that will stop
you.
You might say, “I will continue studying English
unless the world ends.”
If the world ends, we’ll have more problems
than finding time to study English, right,
so this is the exception.
I will continue studying English forever.
There’s an exception, unless the world ends,
that’s the exception.
Now, let’s take a look at a couple of famous
quotes using our lynch pin word unless.
The first quote is by Albert Einstein and
he says, “Nothing will end war unless the
people themselves refuse to go to war.”
He’s saying that war will always continue.
Nothing will stop war, but there is an exception,
unless the people themselves refuse to go
to war.
If there are no soldiers, there will be no
war.
This is kind of an idealistic phrase, but
it’s quite deep and insightful.
He’s kind of putting the responsibility on
the people to stop war, instead of putting
that responsibility on the politicians.
If this is a interesting idea to you, I recommend
listening to the song Universal Soldier.
This is an older song and there’s a great
cover by Donovan on YouTube.
You can check it out and listen to this great
song talking about peace in the world.
The next quote is by Dale Carnegie, a great
motivational writer.
He said, “People rarely succeed unless they
have fun in what they’re doing.”
Here the rule is all people rarely succeed.
It’s unusual for people to succeed, but the
exception is, when you have fun with what
you’re doing, you will succeed.
I’m curious if you agree with this idea.
If you don’t enjoy learning English, can you
succeed?
Can you reach your goals of passing an exam
or speaking confidently or understanding movies?
Do you agree that you need to enjoy what you’re
learning in order to succeed?
Let me know.
The next quote is by Dr. Seuss, who is a well
loved children’s book author.
In one of his books, his character, the Lorax
says this quote.
The Lorax says, “Unless someone like you cares
a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get
better, it’s not.”
You see that he used unless at the beginning,
that’s fine.
It’s a little less common in casual conversation,
but this is a quote from a book character.
What does this mean?
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful
lot.
He’s putting responsibility on us.
Each individual has the responsibility to
care about problems in the world.
When we care individually, then changes will
happen, but if we don’t care, nothing’s going
to change.
Nothing’s going to get better, so we need
to care.
We need to take action.
It’s our choice.
It’s up to us.
This is difficult, but it’s good motivation.
All right, let’s move on to some negative
sentences.
Each of these sentences has the word not in
it.
“You can’t improve unless you study,” so you
need to study.
The first half of this sentence is negative
and the second half is positive.
“You can’t improve unless you study.”
The first half is negative, you can’t, and
the second half is the goal, the motivation.
You need to do this unless you study, so you
should study.
“I wouldn’t eat bugs unless I had to.”
In what situation would you eat bugs?
Have you ever eaten bugs before?
Maybe if you were starving, if you had no
other food.
This sentence is saying, the only situation
in which I would eat bugs is an absolute necessity,
if I had to.
You can say, “I wouldn’t eat bugs, well there
is an exception unless I had to.”
The end of this sentence is kind of cutoff.
You could say, “I wouldn’t eat bugs unless
I had to eat bugs,” but we don’t need to repeat
eat bugs, so we can just cut off that last
part and say, “Unless I had to,” unless it
was an absolute necessity.
My son won’t go to sleep unless I tell him
a story or two stories or three stories or
four stories.
Before my son goes to bed, he needs for me
to tell him a story or for my husband, Dan,
to tell him a story.
This is a requirement for sleeping for him.
At the beginning we have a negative part,
my son won’t go to sleep.
Well there’s an exception unless I tell him
a story.
I need to tell him a story for him to go to
sleep.
Now let’s go onto the question form.
Can you use the word unless in a question?
Take a look at this question and see how you
feel about it.
Can you say, “Will you meet up unless it’s
minus 10 degrees?
Will you meet up unless it’s minus 10 degrees?”
Not really.
This is not used.
Instead, when you’re asking a question, you
need to use another expression that means
the same thing as unless.
For questions we need to use if plus not to
make it a more natural sentence.
Let’s take a look at a couple of examples
so that you can see the question and then
you can see the answer form.
“Will you meet up if it’s not minus 10 degrees?
If it’s not minus 10 degrees?”
This is great.
When you’re asking a question we’re going
to use if and not.
“Will you meet up if it’s not minus 10 degrees?”
“Yes.”
You can answer this question in two different
ways.
You could just repeat that same sentence structure.
“Yes, we will meet up if it’s not minus 10
degrees.”
You can use that exact same sentence structure,
but if you want to use our keyword today,
unless, you could say, “We will meet up unless
it’s minus 10 degrees.”
You’ve got some options for answers, but for
the question you need to use if plus not.
Let’s look at a couple others.
“Would you eat bugs if you didn’t have to?”
Here we’re using if plus not and not is actually
part of a contraction.
Did plus not becomes didn’t, so you might
ask, “Would you eat bugs if you didn’t have
to like just for fun?”
Well you could say, “No, I wouldn’t eat bugs
if I didn’t have to.”
Okay, you’re using that same sentence construction
or you can use the word unless and say, “I
wouldn’t eat bugs unless I had to.”
Or what about this question?
“Will you keep studying English if the world
doesn’t end?
If the world doesn’t,” that’s using not here,
“end?
Will you keep studying English if the world
doesn’t end?”
“Yeah, I’ll keep studying English if the world
doesn’t end,” so same sentence construction.
You’re just mirroring what was in the question.
Or you could use the word unless and say,
“I will keep studying English unless the world
ends.”
Is this true for you?
Let me know in the comments.
Let’s do a quick review so that you can practice
these sentences with me.
I want you to say these sentences out loud
to train your pronunciation muscles to practice
speaking.
Also to help you remember how to use the word
unless naturally.
Are you ready to speak out loud with me?
Let’s do it.
“I’ll come over to your house unless I get
sick.
I’ll keep studying English unless the world
ends.
People rarely succeed unless they have fun
in what they’re doing.
You can’t improve unless you study.
I wouldn’t eat bugs unless I had to.
Will you meet up if it’s not minus 10 degrees?
Would you eat bugs if you didn’t have to?”
Great practice, and now I have a question
for you.
Imagine that your friend says, “It’s so cool
that you’re learning English.
I want to try to, what should I do to improve
my English skills?”
Well, you need to give them some good advice
about improving their English, so I want you
to finish this sentence.
You won’t improve your English unless you
practice every day, listen to real English
material.
What’s some advice that you would give to
your friend?
Write a comment below answering this question
and finishing the sentence as naturally as
possible.
Thank you so much for learning English with
me, and I’ll see you again next Friday for
a new lesson here on my YouTube channel, unless
the world ends.
Talk to you later, bye.
The next step is to download my free ebook,
Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much.
Bye.