Hi and welcome back to love English I'm Leila and today I want to help you
understand conditionals... and I don't want to help you understand the first
conditional, the second conditional, or even the third conditional! I want to
help you understand ALLl of the conditionals, which in fact includes zero.
That's right there are in fact four conditionals zero first second and third
and of course there are rules that we can break when it comes to conditionals
but for now I'm going to teach you the basic structures of those conditionals
I'm going to teach you in what situations you should use them and I'm
gonna make sure you don't make any errors with them again. Right let's get
started! zero, first, second and third...four
conditionals! you can do it!
Now the first thing I want to teach you before I even go into zero, first, second and
third conditional is to make sure you understand that a conditional is formed
with two parts, basically two clauses two sentences. You have the hypothetical 'if'
clause and then you have the 'result' clause. So these two clauses come
together to form a conditional sentence and this is true of all the conditionals
now when it comes to separating those conditionals let's have an example here
if I went to Spain, I would drink sangria if I went to Spain, I would drink sangria
now here you can see the if clause if I went to Spain I'm hypothesizing I'm
imagining a situation where I went to Spain I need to have a comma okay so the
comma comes after that clause and then we'd have I would drink sangria full
stop that is generally the way we would use a conditional however you could also
flip that around so you could say I would drink sangria if I went to Spain
so when the if clause comes at the end of the conditional you don't need a
comma so I just wanted to share that one grammar point because it applies to all
the conditionals and I don't have to keep repeating myself so zero
conditional zero okay zero conditional is formed with if plus present simple
comma plus present simple if you press that button the light turns on if you
press that button the light turns on if you heat water to a hundred degrees
centigrade it boils if you want to turn on the TV press that button now zero
conditional focuses on real possible situations that could happen at any time
but often this is actually in the present we use the zero conditional to
talk about general truths so if you heat water it boils this is a general truth
it's a fact in fact so this is another reason that we would
use zero conditional and of course we use zero conditional for instructions if
you want to turn on the TV press that button there we go
so three reasons that we use zero conditional right first conditional so
it gets a little bit more complicated here but in fact the first conditional
is quite commonly used in English with first conditional you need F Plus
present simple comma will won't be going to may might in fact there's quite a few
options that you could use here but essentially after all of these you need
the verb in the infinitive form remember these are modal verbs
except for B going to but of course after be going to I'm going to go you
need the infinitive verb so it's not present simple it's the infinitive we
use at the first conditional to talk about possible situations in the present
or the future so they are possible it's quite likely that these things will
happen for example if it's sunny tomorrow I'll go for a walk if it's
sunny tomorrow I'll go for a walk here we've got a possible future event and
the result nice and simple you can use a first conditional to make an offer if
you need help I'll come over here you're offering your services you're offering
to help somebody you can also use a first conditional for warnings I'll call
the police if you don't stop annoying me I'll call the police if you don't stop
annoying me okay a little bit dramatic just to be annoyed but you get the idea
and of course pay attention to that last one because you can see I'll call the
police I've put the result first why have I
done this well it just might show that the result is pretty serious so if
you're warning someone this could be a good way to warn them with first
conditional I'll call the police if you don't stop annoying me
of course perfectly okay to say if you don't stop annoying me
I'll call the police there's just a slight change in focus when you choose
to put the result clause first right we're doing pretty well and we're moving
on to second conditional so the structure of second conditional if plus
past simple comma plus would or wouldn't or could or couldn't and the infinitive
verb following them again they are modal verbs so you need an infinitive form so
we use at the second conditional for three reasons one to talk about possible
but unlikely situations in the future it's possible but not probable to talk
about present situations that are impossible so something right now that
is just not possible it's a completely imagined situation and we can also use
second conditional to give advice this is a brilliant way to use the second
conditional and in fact very commonly used in English let's look at some
examples if I won the lottery I would buy a really fast car if I won the
lottery I would buy a really fast car now I play
the lottery so it's possible that I can win but it's unlikely the odds of me
winning are pretty low so here we've got a situation in the future that's not
likely to happen and if it does don't worry I will still continue to make
youtube videos for you guys so pay attention with the second conditional
pronunciation try contracting there if I won the lottery
I'd I'd buy a fast car buy red car buy a boat I'd buy a boat number two if I were
an animal or insect I would be a butterfly because I'd be beautiful and I
could fly anywhere I wanted pay attention here we are obviously talking
about a situation that is just not possible if I were but listen to that
it's not if I was but it's if I were in the second conditional we use this
structure it's a hypothetical situation so if I were let me know comment below
if you are an animal insect what would you be see if we can
understand your personality a little bit more from the second conditional what
animal or insect would you be if you could be any so this is a hypothetical
situation now it is not possible it is just it's not going to happen okay
you're not suddenly gonna become a butterfly or a lion or tiger hippo what
would you be so the second conditional is also used for giving advice in fact
it is very commonly used for giving advice if you ask me what should I do to
improve my English I could say if I were you pay attention remember we said were
with second conditional if I were you I would read more if I were you I would
watch more Netflix so there we can see the second conditional is used in a very
practical function giving advice so there we go second conditional so far so
good you're doing a great job to still be following third conditional is
looking at the past unlike first second and zero third conditional focuses on a
hypothetical past you can't change this but you imagine how things would be if
they were different let's have a look at the structure with third conditional you
need.if plus past perfect that's had plus the past participle plus would or
could or should or even might or may now pay attention to this next bit because
people often make mistakes after the if clause if plus past perfect you need
would or could or should or may or might Plus have plus the past
participle so there's two past participles in a third conditional in
both the clauses so although it looks like present perfect have plus past
participle it's not it's not because after should could would you do not have
has has is the third person form she has gone
he has gone but I have gone we don't have that in third conditional because
we are using a modal verb before it who told you it gets more complicated so
that is the structure let's have a look at some examples one the biggest reason
we use sir conditional to express regret if I had seen the red light I would have
stopped the car if I have seen the red light I would have stopped the car if
I'd study harder I would have passed the test if I had studied harder I would
have passed the test did you hear the difference in my pronunciation that last
time listen carefully to this if I'd if I'd studied harder I would've would've
passed the test so getting the pronunciation right here
is really important it's a long sentence there's a lot of words there contracting
them is going to make you sound more natural if I had studied harder I would
have passed the test of course in the same way if I have
studied harder I could have passed the test so there we go nice simple examples
remember this is hypothetical past I didn't study hard I didn't pass the test
I can't change that I wish I could essentially that's what you're saying
with third conditional criticism the next one third conditional we can use to
criticize somebody or even ourselves if you'd worked harder you could have
passed the test if you'd worked harder you could have passed the test if you
had worked harder you could have passed the test yeah how it sounds quite
strange and unnatural to pronounce all of those words very slowly and
separately if you'd worked harder you could have passed the test so there we
have it so there we go that's it all the conditionals those are the pure
conditionals zero first second and Burt please comment below and try and use
some of those conditionals I already asked you a few questions through
the lesson first conditional if it's sunny tomorrow what will you do
tell me comment below let me know second conditional if you were an animal or an
insect what would you be if you were an animal or an insect what would you be
start the sentence if I were an animal I would be let me know and let me know why
as well and finally third conditional do you have any regrets in the past what do
you wish you had done differently remember if I had worked harder you
didn't work hard I would have passed the test
you didn't pass the test so comment below have a go using some of those
conditionals it's the best practice you can get and of course you can also ask
for my advice on how to study English I will respond using which conditional
second that's right thank you so much for watching and don't forget to share
this lesson if you thought it was useful bye