Let’s talk about conditionals.
What are those?
They are cause-and-effect sentences.
We often use the word “if” to say something that might happen,
and then we say what happens next because of it.
Oh, like “if it’s a sunny day tomorrow, we’ll go to the beach.”
Or, “what would you do if you won a million dollars?”
Yeah, we use “if” all the time.
Yep.
So, let’s suppose you know when to use conditionals and what they mean,
and focus instead on how we use them.
Okay.
Conditional sentences are typically composed of two clauses.
What are those again?
A clause is a group of words that can be a sentence by itself.
Oh, so, “what would you do?” is a clause.
Right.
And sometimes, like with conditional sentences,
we put two clauses together into the same sentence.
Here, “it is a sunny day tomorrow” is the condition, …
And “we will go to the beach” is the result?
Yep.
Okay, what are the verbs in that top sentence?
‘is’ in the first clause, and ‘will go’ in the second clause.
Hmm, that’s interesting.
What is?
They’re not the same tense.
One verb is in the present tense, and the other is in the future tense.
Hmm, that is weird.
What about the next sentence?
The verbs are ‘would do’ and ‘won’.
We often use ‘would’ for conditionals.
Wait, hold on.
The verbs are different tenses again.
Yep.
How do we know which tenses we’re supposed to use?
That’s a great question.
And when do we use ‘would’?
It all depends on which type of conditional we use.
We can find the answers to your questions in a table.
Okay…
I’ll just run through everything really quickly, if that’s okay with you.
Sure…
We use zero conditional for things that are generally or always true.
We put 'if' or 'when' before the condition clause, which should be expressed in the present simple tense.
The result clause is also in the present simple tense.
The 1st conditional is for possible or even probable events in the future.
Again, we can say 'when' if we’re certain it will happen, but 'if' otherwise.
The condition clause is expressed in present tense, while the result clause is in the future tense.
If we’re not certain, we use modals like 'could' or 'might'.
The 2nd conditional is used for hypotheticals in the present or the near future.
We only use 'if' before the condition clause, which has a past verb.
The result clause needs 'would' or some other modal before the verb.
The 3rd conditional is for past hypotheticals.
The condition clause has 'if' before a past perfect verb,
and we use past modals with the verb in the result clause.
Mixed conditionals are when we take the clause from one category (but not zero conditional)
and connect them with a clause from another category.
So which verb we use for either clause depends on the category they’re borrowed from.
Got it?
Uhhh…
What’s wrong?
That’s just, I mean, it’s really confusing.
I’m never going to remember that.
There has to be an easier way.
Hmm.
I guess we could find some patterns to simplify all this.
Yes, please.
Alright.
Let’s ignore the mixed conditionals for now,
and we’ll start with the condition clauses.
For each category, what’s the connection between the usage (or the meaning)
and the condition clause?
They’re all different tenses.
Right, but they’re all different in the same way.
Why don’t we look at them on a timeline.
Okay.
The first conditional has a future meaning, but we express it in present tense.
What’s next?
The second conditional has a present meaning, but we use a past verb.
And the third conditional?
It’s a past meaning with a past perfect verb.
Right.
Past perfect is like double-past, or super-past;
it happens before the past verb, for whatever the context is.
Oh, I see the pattern now!
What is it?
Every verb moves backwards!
Exactly!
We call this backshifting.
The form is more past than the meaning.
Okay, but what about the zero conditional?
Remember that one way to use the present simple tense
is to talk about things that are always or generally true.
For example: “Donna has green eyes.”
That doesn’t change with time.
Right.
So, if we take always and make it more past, what is it now?
It’s still always.
It doesn’t change, so we still use present simple.
I see.
Can we practice a few?
Sure.
How about these.
“Aliens land on Earth” is present,
but if we shift it back, then it should be in the past tense.
So “Aliens landed on Earth.”
Very good.
“Will come” is future, so shifting it back makes it present, right?
So just ‘come’.
Or ‘comes’, I guess.
Well done.
‘Know’ is present tense.
Yeah, but this sentence is a rule,
so suppose ‘know’ can be always true.
Oh, so, always stays the same.
We don’t change anything.
Right!
Last one.
‘Broke’ is past. So if we make it more past,
… uh …
What do we use for double-past, or super-past?
Oh, ‘broken’.
‘had broken’.
Nicely done!
Yeah, I think I got it.
Let’s go back to the table.
We could either memorize which tense we need to use for each type of conditional, or …
We could just backshift the verb from it’s meaning, no matter which conditional it is.
That’s it!
Take a look at the result clauses now.
Okay.
What’s the first thing you notice?
The tense is the same as the meaning this time.
Good to know.
What else?
… Some of them have modals.
What are modals again?
They are auxiliary verbs that qualify main verbs.
Words like 'would', 'could', 'should', 'may', 'might', and 'must'.
Oh, right.
You did say that we use ‘would’ a lot in conditionals.
Right.
Now, remember that the main verbs that follow these should be in the base form.
For example, we say “he would sing,” not “he would sings”.
Got it.
But I see there are future modals, present modals, and past modals.
What’s the difference?
Present modals and future modals are almost the same.
The differences are so small we’re not even going to talk about them now.
But past modals have a different form.
What is it?
You just add “have” after the modal.
“could have”, “may have”, “must’ve”, – that’s pretty easy.
But the main verb needs to be past participle after these.
Like “he would’ve sung”.
Just like that.
Okay, so when do we use modals, and when don’t we?
Look at the meanings again.
Hmm.
Do we use modals when it might not happen?
That’s right!
Because the 2nd and 3rd conditionals are hypothetical, they’re considered unreal situations.
But the zero conditional is the opposite; it’s definitely real.
What about the 1st conditional?
Well, it’s in the future, so it’s not certain.
If we’re confident something will happen, it’s real.
So we’ll say “will” or “be going to”.
But if we’re really not sure, or if we doubt it’ll happen, it’s unreal.
Okay, hold on.
If it’s unreal, we need a modal verb,
but if it is real, then we don’t use a modal verb.
Right?
Exactly!
And either way, we use the same tense as the meaning.
Alright.
There’s one more reason that it’s good to know real vs unreal.
What’s that?
We can always use ‘if’ before the condition clause
– or ‘unless’ for negative –
but for real situations, we could say ‘when’ instead, if we wanted to.
I see, because those are more certain.
Yeah.
The table’s a lot simpler now.
Yeah.
In fact, we don’t even need to know whether it’s zero, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd conditional anymore.
We just need to pay attention to the tenses,
and know if the situation is real or unreal.
That’s it?
Try it for yourself.
Wait, what if I get the condition clause and the result clause mixed up?
The condition happens before its result,
so the condition verb should be more past than the result verb.
Oh, that makes sense.
Here are some cause-and-effect scenarios.
Put each pair together in one sentence.
Okay.
“Water boils…”
Oh, this is true every time, so nothing changes.
“Water boils when it reaches 100°C.”
Nicely done!
The next is unreal.
Okay, so we shift ‘broke’ back to ‘had broken’,
and we add ‘would’ to the result.
‘would is’?
no, ‘would be’.
If Barb had broken her leg, she would be in the hospital now.
“We will win” gets backshifted to present: “we win”.
“If we win the championship, there will be a huge party!”
Great job!
Look, you did a mixed conditional, and you didn’t even know it.
Awesome!
So, just remember: backshift the verb in the condition clause,
and add a modal to the verb in the result clause,
but only if it’s unreal.
That’s it!