CONDITIONAL SENTENCES Lesson Five

CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

Conditional are statements with ‘if’ or ‘unless.’ There are two clauses in them, one is condition and the other is result. Usually they are separated by a comma.

We can divide Conditionals into two types:

A.     Factual Conditionals (If)

B.     Contrary-to-fact Conditionals (Unless)

STRUCTURE OF FACTUAL CONDITIONALS

1.                  Absolute, Scientific result.

CONDITION			RESULT
If	PRESENT SIMPLE	,	PRESENT SIMPLE
EXAMPLES
If	water freezes	,	it becomes solid.
USE: This conditional is used to show absolute truth having no other result possible

2.                  Probable Results in Future

CONDITION			RESULT
If	PRESENT SIMPLE	,	FUTURE SIMPLE
EXAMPLE
If	you take admission now	,	you will get discount in fee.
		OR
RESULT			CONDITION
FUTURE SIMPLE		If	PRESENT SIMPLE
You will get discount in fee		if	you take admission now.
USE: This conditional is used to express strong chances of happening of an event.

3.                  Possible results in Past

CONDITION				RESULT
If	PAST SIMPLE		,	S		WOULD/COULD/MIGHT				V1ST	Obj
EXAMPLE
If	she ate fewer sweets		,	she would lose weight
				OR
RESULT								CONDITION
S	WOULD/COULD/MIGHT	V1ST			Obj			If	PAST SIMPLE
She would lose weight								if	she ate fewer sweets.
USE: It express past actions that could bring a result in future.
NOTE: Would/Could/Might are used in the sequence of probability.

4.                  Possible changes in Past result.

CONDITION

RESULT

If

PAST PERFECT

,

S

WOULD/COULD/MIGHT

HAVE

V3RD

Obj

EXAMPLE

If he had worked harder

,

he would have passed the exams by now.

OR

RESULT

CONDITION

S

WOULD/COULD/ MIGHT

HAVE

V3RD

Obj

If

PAST PERFECT

He would have passed the exams by now

if he had worked harder

OR

CONDITION

RESULT

HAD

S

V3RD

Obj

,

S

WOULD/COULD/MIGHT

HAVE

V3RD

Obj

Had he worked harder

,

he would have passed the examination by now.

Note: Although the condition clause starts from ‘had,’ it is not a question.

USE:  It reflects the opinion about results of past under different conditions.

STRUCTURE OF CONTRARY-TO-FACT CONDITIONALS

Change in condition--- (Unless)

NORMAL RESULT		CHANGED CONDITION
FUTURE SIMPLE	Unless	PRESENT SIMPLE
EXAMPLE
You may not get well	unless	you take medicines properly.
Warranty claim will be rejected	unless	proper invoice is made.
USE: It expresses that the condition will not change in normal circumstances.