English Conditional

If you're trying to learn English Conditional you will find some useful resources including a course about Conditional, type one, two and three... to help you with your English grammar. Try to concentrate on the lesson and notice the pattern that occurs each time the word changes its place. Also don't forget to check the rest of our other lessons listed on Learn English. Enjoy the rest of the lesson!

English Conditional

Learning the English Conditional is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you practice the subject, the closer you get to mastering the English language. But first we need to know what the role of Conditional is in the structure of the grammar in English.

The conditional tense is used when an action depends on another action. Sometimes the action is real (like in Conditional Type I), and imaginary (like Conditional Type II).

 

Conditional Type I

The first conditional is used to express situations based on fact in the present or future, things that may happen in reality.

If it snows tomorrow, I will not come to school, the sentence can also be reversed as: I will not come to school if it snows tomorrow.

I will jump if you jump (future + if + present) or: If you jump, I will jump (if + present + future).

So the structure of the conditional 1 is: (future + if + present), or (if + present + future). Note: never use “will” with “if”.

 

Conditional Type II

The second conditional is used to express unreal situations in the present or future.

If I were you, I would apologize to her. (but I'm not you, so the condition is not real). Again you can reverse the sentence: I would apologize to her if I were you.

The structure of the conditional 2 is: (if + past + would + present) or (would+ present + if + past).

 

Conditional Type III

The 3rd conditional is used to express conditions in the past that didn't happen, usually the expressions (could have, should have, would have) are used especially when there is a regret or criticism of a past action.

For example someone who is blaming his brother for not helping him on his homework two days ago, so he says: If you had helped me on my homework, I wouldn't have failed the exam. (So this means that the real situation now is the opposite, his brother didn’t help him on his homework, and also this means that he failed the exam).

Another example: If you hadn’t listened to me, you would have lost all the money. (But it seems that he listened to him, and that he didn’t lose the money)

The structure of the conditional 3 is (if + past perfect + would + present perfect) or (would + present perfect + if + past perfect).

The conditional types have a very important role in English, therefore they need very special attention. Once you're done with English Conditional, you might want to check the rest of our English lessons here: Learn English. Don't forget to bookmark this page.