Conditionals in English

Conditionals in English : Conditional sentences look at possible situations and the most common types of conditional sentences involve the word ‘if’. In this lesson, i will explain the four types of conditionals.

Zero conditional: We use the zero conditional to talk about things that are always true.

Example: 1. If you heat water, it boils.
2. If I am late for training, my coach gets angry.

We use the present simple in both clauses.

First conditional: We use the first conditional to talk about events in the future that are likely to happen.

Imagine this situation: You are at home. There are rain clouds in the sky but it is not raining. You plan to play tennis later. You could say:
If it rains, I will not play tennis.

We can also place the ‘if’ in the middle to mean the same thing:
I will not play tennis if it rains.

We form the first conditional with:
If + present simple + will + infinitive

Second conditional: We use the second conditional to talk about unreal or impossible things. 

Example: 1. If I won a million dollars, I would buy myself a new house.
2. If I had a house in the hills, I would host parties every night.
3. If we went to Europe, we would live in a beautiful castle.

We form the second conditional with:
If + past simple + would + infinitive

Third conditional: We use the third conditional to talk about actions in the past that did not happen. We use it to imagine a different past.

Example: 1. She would have passed her exam, if she had studied more.
2. If I had seen the movie, I wouldn't have bought the DVD.
3. If I had done my assignment, I would have passed the subject.

We form the third conditional with:
If + past perfect + would have + past participle