in this video podcast
let's tackle something which english
language learners find difficult it's a
part of grammar but you need it if
you're going to understand english and
speak it fluently
so today let's tackle conditionals
let's take the bull by the horns to give
an idiom on that and if you don't know
what conditionals are then listen on and
find
out hello i'm hilary and you're
listening to adept english
we will help you to speak english
fluently
all you have to do is listen
so start listening now and find out how
it works
so we're going to do some english
grammar today and we're going to cover
conditionals with if statements and how
to use them
if you don't know that term conditionals
then we are talking about a way of using
verbs
and if we use the conditional we're
showing that something is not a
certainty it's not a statement it's not
something that's actually happening
instead we're talking about a
possibility a maybe something that might
happen
that's what we mean when we say
conditional verbs or conditionals
so today conditionals with if
and i'll give you a couple of examples
first of all
if it rains this afternoon i will bake a
cake
if it's sunny this afternoon i will go
for a walk
so i'm talking about possibilities there
i'm talking about what i will do
dependent upon the weather it's not yet
decided because it's not yet happened
so those are conditionals
now if you've studied conditionals in
english before you'll know that they're
often separated into different types so
you have type 0
type 1 type 2 and type 3 conditionals in
english and you need to know that
because they use verbs differently they
use different verb tenses
so it's useful when you're listening so
that you could understand the subtlety
of what you're hearing what's being said
and if you're going to be fluent in
english you'll need to learn to use them
yourself too
now i have done podcasts before on
conditionals if you have a look on our
website you'll be able to search on the
term conditional and you'll find podcast
322
which is all about using conditionals
without if
using conditionals in other ways
so that's a nice complement to this
podcast and that's available for free on
our website
if you want to go further with
conditionals i have taught them before
so in podcast 202
i went into detail about type 0 and type
1 conditionals and again in podcast 210
i talk about type 2 and type 3
conditionals now these are from a little
while ago so they're not available
for free on our website but they are
available as part of a podcast bundle so
if you look at our courses page at
adeptenglish.com
and go to podcast bundles you've got to
page down to get to them
it's the one that goes 201 to 250
so the podcasts on conditionals are in
that particular bundle
but i'm going to go through them today
anyway so see how you do with this
podcast first so
type 0 type 1 type 2 and type 3
conditionals
basically we're talking about levels of
possibility
so type 0 are very very possible
and type 3 are not possible so there's
sort of four grades of possibility i
guess with these types of conditionals
let me talk through each one of them
so type zero conditionals are what i
call general truths things that are
always true
examples would be
if the temperature goes below zero
degrees celsius water freezes if it's my
birthday my husband takes me to a
restaurant
if you put sugar in your tea it tastes
sweet
so we're talking here about things which
always happen
if this
then that if the condition is met this
always happens so these are general
truths and you'll notice in terms of the
tenses it's
if
plus simple present
followed by simple present so it's nice
and simple
type one conditionals these are what i
call
real possibilities they haven't happened
yet they may not come true but they are
real possibilities so here we use if
plus simple present
then this will happen so if you see the
word will w-i-l-l that shows that it's a
type 1 possibility some examples if that
tree falls down i will chop it up for
firewood if i have his number i will
call him i'll go and get the shopping if
you tidy the house if the cat comes in i
will feed him if she sees her neighbor
this afternoon she will speak to him so
these are if
if plus simple present and will w-i-l-l
so these are things that may well happen
so that brings us on to type 2
conditionals and these are what i call
not currently true and much less likely
so the chances of these things happening
are a little less likely than type 1
conditionals and
i'll use the same sentences here as
examples to show you the difference if
that tree fell down i would chop it up
for firewood if i had his number i would
call him i would go and get the shopping
if you tided the house if the cat came
in i would feed him
if she saw her neighbor this afternoon
she would speak to him so you see that
the tenses are different here it's if
plus simple past
and then would
w-o-l-d
[Music]
so this makes the possibility a little
bit more far away a little bit more
remote i'll read you those sentences
again but with different endings to show
you that these things are less likely if
that tree fell down i would chop it up
for firewood but it's probably going to
be fine if i had his number i would call
him but i don't think i have it i would
go and get the shopping if you tidied
the house but you never do if the cat
came in i would feed him but he's not
been home for three days if she saw her
neighbor this afternoon she would speak
to him but we think he's gone on holiday
so you can hear in those sentences we're
talking about possibilities which are
unlikely what was that phrase i used
again for type twos not currently true
and much less likely okay how about type
three conditionals these are the ones i
call not going to happen now these are
like lost
opportunities missed opportunities and
the clue again is in the tenses so
if plus past perfect tense
would have
if past perfect tense and then would
have that indicates that you're dealing
with a type three conditional so it's
something that could have happened but
it's not going to now those sentences
again if that tree had fallen down i
would have chopped it up for firewood if
i had had his number i would have called
him i would have gone and got the
shopping if you had tidied the house if
the cat had come in i would have fed him
if she had seen her neighbor this
afternoon she would have spoken to him
so the meaning with all of these is that
well it could have happened but it
didn't it's not going to happen now so
very often conditionals show that range
of possibility
from something that always happens if
certain conditions are met like water
freezing if the temperature goes below
zero degrees celsius
all the way through the range to type
threes which mean it's not going to
happen now it was a possibility but it's
not anymore but what we also use
conditionals for is to show something of
the mindset of the speaker
if i read you three sentences
these are type one type two and type
three you'll get what i mean
you'll understand what i mean
type one
if i win the lottery i will buy a big
house in the country
this sounds like i really believe i
might win
i'm holding out for that possibility
type 2. if i won the lottery i would buy
a big house in the country
well here it sounds like i'm daydreaming
i know it's a distant possibility but
i'm just thinking about oh what if what
if i won the lottery
type three
if i had won the lottery i would have
bought a big house in the country
so this one sounds like the possibility
is now closed it's now not going to
happen perhaps i've stopped buying
lottery tickets that's what that one
means
so they can add subtlety to the meaning
of what somebody is trying to say
so your first stage is to learn to
understand these subtle meanings and
then you will move towards being able to
use these conditional tenses correctly
yourself
it'll make you more expressive in
english
okay quiz time now it's time to test
yourself
i'm just going to run through the types
again just to remind you of what they
mean and which tenses they use and then
i'll give you some quiz questions
type 0 conditionals are general truths
so it's if plus simple present
simple present type one
real possibilities things that really
could happen
so if with simple present tense
will
something will happen type two
conditionals
not currently true and much less likely
so the verbs there
if plus simple past
would w-o-l-d
something would happen type three
conditionals
these are the ones i call not going to
happen now these are the missed
opportunities
so it's if with past perfect plus would
have so those are the indicators in the
verb tenses of what type of condition
that you're hearing so i will give you
eight sentences with a mix of these
types of conditionals
you need to say whether you think
they're type zero type one type two or
type three of course the answers are on
our website here goes number one
if i have time on my way home from work
i will buy some peaches number two if
you had bought the book i would have
read it number three if you drive to
oxford from here you pass banbury on the
way number four
if you introduced your sister i would
help her find a job number five if it
rains the cats come indoors
number six if my uncle had parked more
carefully he wouldn't have damaged the
garage door number seven
if they go to spain they will visit
barcelona number eight if they went to
spain they would visit barcelona
okay so the answers to that quiz are in
the transcript on our website at adept
adeptenglish.com
i suggest you listen to this podcast a
number of times and then these
conditionals and their subtle meanings
and differences and the different tenses
that they use will be something that
you'll be able to remember more easily
listen to this podcast a number of times
so that you really understand
conditionals then you can not only
understand them but you can move towards
using them yourself
enough for now have a lovely day speak
to you again soon
goodbye