Hi everyone. It'ss Jennifer here with another lesson on conditionals in English.
I know this is turning into quite a long series on conditionals, but there's truly a lot to talk about.
We use conditional sentences every day, so it's a very useful grammar topic.
My lessons provide review and expansion.
If anything, you're going to feel more confident by the time you finish this playlist.
Did you just catch my use of "if anything"?
In the last lesson as a bonus task, I asked you to think about this phrase.
Do we use "if anything" to emphasize or soften an idea?
My example was about a strange toothpaste flavor I heard about.
Dong-Jin Seo gave a wonderful explanation. Take a look.
"If anything" emphasizes an idea. I think it is similar to "in fact" or "actually."
Correct. Those are very similar expressions. Ra'ed agrees. He wrote:
Yes, and Sam clarified this point even further.
Exactly. Thanks, Sam, Ra'ed, and Don-Jin Seo.
"If anything" isn't a full IFclaause with a subject and a verb, but the meaning is understood,
so I'm including this phrase in our discussion of implied conditionals.
"If anything" is common in conversation. In our last lesson,
we looked at other implied conditionals that are probably more common in writing because they're slightly more formal.
We looked at: if need be, if necessary, if possible,
if so, if not, and otherwise.
We'll look at some of your examples to review. Here's a good one.
What's implied?
If you don't give plenty of attention to vocabulary along with grammar, then...
Ra'ed wrote:
Well, thank you.
What's implied by "if so"?
If you plan to visit Egypt, then...
Right? "If so" implies what the outcome is in that case.
So Ra'ed is really saying if that's the case, then I'll host you.
"If not" is the opposite: if that isn't the case.
Let's look at Susanna's example.
She wrote:
So she's saying if I don't do that, I won't improve.
Here's an example that combines "if so" and "if not."
Are you going to the market? If so, please get me a book on English grammar. If not, could you please give me yours?
Look at two of Molly's sentences.
Note one small change I'm going to make to keep a polite tone.
She wrote:
What's implied? "If it is possible"... "if it is necessary or "if you find it necessary."
George reminds us that "if possible" and "if necessary" can also be used at the end of a sentence.
He wrote:
Roxana wrote about necessity using "if need be."
Take a look and I'll make a change. Note my suggestions for a more formal tone.
What's implied? "If there is a need" or "if I need to..."
Finally, Vijay created an example with three of our phrases.
Note my suggestions for clarity.
Thank you to everyone who posted their examples.
There are other times in formal and informal English when we don't use a full IF clause. If you've watched my advanced grammar
lessons, you'll likely recognize IF + a past participle as a reduced adverb clause.
Remember those reductions are possible only when the subjects are the same in both clauses.
Sometimes the conjunction BUT or BUT THEN implies a conditional.
The preposition WITHOUT can also imply a condition and a likely result.
It's also possible sometimes to state a result and imply the condition.
Here's a new phrase: if nothing else.
Like "if anything" we use "if nothing else" for emphasis.
Both phrases are common in spoken English, but "if nothing else"
emphasizes the one good thing we see in a person or in a situation and the rest is likely not good.
In all three examples, I'm speaking rather negatively about Cape Cod.
My sentences suggests that I can't find many good things,
so I'm emphasizing a single positive feature instead.
With the phrase "if nothing else" I'm implying it may not be good in any other way, but...
For homework create your own example with "if nothing else." Write it in the comments.
We'll wrap this lesson up with four
conversational expressions that use a full IF clause but they imply part of the result.
We use "if you don't mind me asking" and then a question.
This structure is good when you know, you're asking for personal or otherwise private information.
You're sorry for possibly intruding or causing discomfort, but you're curious enough to ask.
"If you ask me" is used with a statement when you're giving a frank opinion, although no one invited you to do this.
We use "if you must know" when we're giving information reluctantly.
Maybe it's personal. Maybe it's private business.
In any case it's not information that we easily or freely share with others.
Another expression we use when we do something reluctantly is "if you insist."
Follow me on Facebook and visit my YouTube community tab for more practice with these conditions:
Here's a bonus task you can do in the comments. How do you understand the full result in the following statements?
You can post your thoughts in the comments along with your example with "if nothing else."
We'll look over your ideas in the next lesson on conditionals.
That's all for now. As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!
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