[Music]
hello everyone
and welcome back to english with lucy
today
very exciting i have a grammar lesson
for you
we are going to discuss the four
conditionals this is a very very
important lesson
i know that this is a topic that lots of
my students
struggle with there's so much to
remember but hopefully i can clarify
lots of your doubts today to help you
even further i have created a pdf which
covers
everything we're going to talk about and
it
also has a quiz so you can practice
what you've learned and you can check
your understanding
if you would like to download that free
pdf and quiz
all you've got to do is click on the
link in the description box
you enter your name and your email
address you
sign up to my mailing list and i will
send that pdf and quiz
directly to your inbox after that every
week as soon as i've made the pdf for
each lesson as soon as it becomes
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automatic and very convenient and it
means every week
you get lovely new activities and pdfs
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don't be afraid to share your results in
the comments section
right let's get started with the grammar
lesson
so we're going to talk about the four
conditionals we have the zero
conditional
the first conditional the second
conditional and can you guess what the
last conditional
is congratulations it's the third
conditional
each conditional sentence has an if
clause
and a main clause with all conditional
sentences
the order of these clauses is not fixed
so you can swap them around if i
practice
i will get better i will get better if i
practice
it doesn't matter which way but when you
change the order of the clauses
the meaning is the same now we've got
that introduction out of the way
let's start with the zero conditional
a zero conditional sentence consists of
two
present simple verbs one is in the if
clause
and one is in the main clause both parts
of the sentence
are in the present tense nice and easy
if
this thing happens that thing happens
or that thing happens if this thing
happens
we use the zero conditional to talk
about general truths
when in general there is a guaranteed
result
like scientific facts if you
heat water it evaporates that's a
scientific fact we're not talking about
specific conditions on that day or
anything in general
if you heat water it evaporates
interestingly you can usually replace if
with when or whenever without the
meaning changing
when i am happy i smile i smile when i'm
happy
remember that when we use the word you
in zero conditionals
we are often talking about people in
general not you in particular
if you melt ice it becomes a liquid
let's take a look at some examples if
i'm sad
i eat chocolate people die
if they don't drink enough water
if dogs get angry they growl
if you don't eat enough you lose weight
if british people get bored they talk
about the weather
that's a scientific fact we often use
the zero conditional to give
instructions
with the imperative in the main clause
if she rings the doorbell
tell her to go away text me
if you get lost okay
before we move on to the first
conditional i want you to check your
understanding in that pdf to make sure
you've grasped everything you've
understood everything
right let's move on to the first
conditional the first conditional
has the present simple after if and then
the future in the main clause
if this thing happens that thing
will happen we use the first conditional
to talk about things that
might happen in the future we can't know
for sure what will happen in the future
but we can use the first conditional to
talk about things that will probably be
true
with the zero conditional we spoke in
general
but with the first conditional we speak
about the real world
and about specific situations some
examples
if we don't leave now we will miss the
train
if you study hard you will pass the exam
if i see my boss i'll ask her
contraction of i will i'll i'll ask her
if it gets colder we'll light a fire
i'll finish my painting if i have time
now it's important to consider modals
when it comes to the first conditional
you can use modals in the main clause in
place of
will to express a recommendation
a degree of certainty permission
take a look if we don't leave now we
might miss the train
if you study hard you could pass the
exam
if i see my boss i shall ask her
if it gets colder we should light a fire
i'll be able to finish my painting if i
have time
right let's move on to the second
conditional
the second conditional uses the past
simple
after if then would and the infinitive
that's the most common
or would and the present continuous and
i'll explain this later
sometimes this gets left out of lessons
but i think it's important that you see
it
in case you come across it and think
what's that
if this thing happened that thing would
happen
or if this thing happened that thing
would be happening we can use the second
conditional to talk about
things in the future that are probably
not going to be true
we often use it to talk about dreams and
fantasies
for example if i won the lottery
i would buy a house in barbados or
if he had more money he would buy a boat
we can also use the second conditional
to talk about things in the present
that are impossible in this case it's
very common to use
i were instead of i was
if i were you i would stop poking the
cat
i can't be you it's impossible but if i
were you
i would stop that it's a good way of
giving advice or a warning
if he were younger i would ask him out
it's impossible he can't be younger so
i'm not going to ask him out
if i was taller i would wear high heels
you can choose between i was and i were
i were sounds a little more formal
i've got a little extra bit of homework
for you i want you to answer it
in the comment section down below i want
you to answer
this question if you were an animal
which one would you be
and why if i were an animal i would be a
fruit bat
because i'm completely addicted to fruit
let me know i'm so excited to see
what you come up with you always
surprise me
now let's talk about that continuous now
for the slightly complicated bit
in second conditional sentences the
continuous form of the present
conditional
can be used if this thing happened
that thing would be happening
if i spoke french i would be living in
paris
i don't speak french so i i couldn't be
living in paris right now
if i had an exam tomorrow i would be
revising right now
it's not so common but it's important
that you know about it
let's move on to the last one the third
conditional i can't believe we're here
already
we use the third conditional to talk
about the past
it's used to talk about a situation that
did not happen
and to imagine the results of this
imaginary
situation we use if and past
perfect and then would have and past
participle in the main clause
if this thing had happened that thing
would have happened if i had studied
harder
i would have passed the exam but i
didn't study hard enough
so i didn't pass the exam
if we had left earlier we wouldn't have
arrived late
you wouldn't be so tired if you had gone
to bed earlier
i hope that's enough right that is it
for my lesson
on conditionals there is more to
conditionals maybe we'll cover that
another day but i think that gives you a
really strong foundation
now i want you to test your learning i
have created a quiz for you
it goes through zero first second and
third conditionals
the quiz is on the pdf which has got all
of the information from today's lesson
just click on the link in the
description box enter your name and
email address
you sign up to my mailing list and you
will receive the pdf
directly in your inbox and then each
week you will receive my pdf
lessons as soon as they're available if
you would like to improve your
vocabulary and your listening skills
then i should just remind you that i
have my vlogging channel
where i vlog my daily life here on a
farm in the english countryside
and every single vlog is completely
subtitled for your understanding so you
can pick up
lots of words because i show a lot of
daily tasks
things that you can use that are
relevant to you don't forget to connect
with me on my social media i've got my
instagram
lucy and i have my website
englishwithlucy.co.uk
where i have a really cool pronunciation
tool where you can click on a phoneme
and hear
me say it and hear me say words that
contain that phoneme
i will see you soon for another lesson
[Music]
you