CONDITIONALS

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  1. Zero Conditional

used to talk about facts or things that are always true. It contains two parts or clauses and both are in the present tense.

Please see the examples below for better understanding.

If you sleep, you get energy.

If you win the lottery, you become rich.

If you slap a cat, it gets angry.

If you mix red and white, you get pink.

If you don’t take a shower, you smell bad. (or you stink)

If I eat meal, my stomach takes 6-8 hours to digest it.

Note: Don’t forget the comma after ”if clause”. Also, if you switch the clauses to make a sentence, comma isn’t necessary. Try it!

2. First Conditional

used to talk about events that will probably happen in the future. It has two parts or clauses, one in the present tense and the other is in the future.

Please see the examples below.
  • Positive First Conditional:

If I study hard, I’ll get good grades.

If it isn’t sunny outside, I won’t put on my sunglasses. (or I won’t put my sunglasses on.)

If I slack off, my wife won’t be happy.

*I will = I’ll *I am= I’m *It has/It is = It’s *will not = won’t

Note: You can invert the clauses w/o adding comma.

Example: I’ll play video games if I finish all my homeworks.

3. Second Conditional

used to talk about impossible or imaginary situations and their consequences.

Examples:

If I ate ten hamburgers, my stomach would blow up.

If I wasn’t sick, I would go to the party.

If I married Donald Trump, I would be the First Lady of the United States.

If I took up Medicine, I would be a doctor.

If I didn’t buy a plane ticket, I wouldn’t travel.

If I didn’t upload my video on Youtube, I wouldn’t be famous.

Note: You can invert the clauses w/o adding comma.

4. Third Conditional

used to talk about something in the past that did not actually happen. This is when we tend to imagine how things could have been different.

Please see the examples below and notice that both clauses (condition and result) are impossible now.

Examples:

If I’d seen her, I would’ve asked her to have dinner with me.

If she’d listened to her parents, she wouldn’t have struggled to survive.

If they’d studied hard in college, their life would’ve been easier.

If James had stayed in Tokyo, he would’ve gotten a job.

Note: You can invert the clauses w/o adding comma. Also, you can use other modal verbs like could or should.

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