Summary

Here is a chart to help you to visualize the basic English conditionals. Do not take the 50% and 10% figures too literally. They are just to help you.

probability		conditional	example	time
100%		zero conditional	If you heat ice, it melts.	any time
50%		first conditional	If it rains, I will stay at home.	future
10%		second conditional	If I won the lottery, I would buy a car.	future
0%		third conditional	If I had won the lottery, I would have bought a car.	past

exercises

Did you hear about that guy who won 180 million dollars in the lottery? If I (win)  that much money, I (quit)  my job the next day. I (travel)  around the world and (stay)  in the most luxurious hotels. If I (want)  anything, I (buy)  it. If I (see)  a beautiful Mercedes that I wanted, I (buy)  it. If I wanted to stay in a beautiful hotel and the hotel (be)  full, I (buy)  the hotel and make them give me a room. I (can)  do anything in the world if I had 180 million dollars ... Oh, I am starting to sound a little materialistic... Well... I (do)  good things with the money as well. If anybody (need)  help, I (give)  them some money to help them out. I (donate)  money to charities. I (give)  money to help support the arts. If I (win)  that much money, I wouldn't keep it all for myself. I (help)  as many people as possible

You can find more of this kind of exercises at http://www.englishpage.com/conditional/conditionalintro.html

Third Conditional: no possibility

The first conditional and second conditionals talk about the future. With the third conditional we talk about the past. We talk about a condition in the past that did not happen. That is why there is no possibility for this condition. The third conditional is also like a dream, but with no possibility of the dream coming true.

Last week you bought a lottery ticket. But you did not win. :-(

	condition	result
	Past Perfect	WOULD HAVE + Past Participle
If	I had won the lottery	I would have bought a car.

Notice that we are thinking about an impossible past condition. You did not win the lottery. So the condition was not true, and that particular condition can never be true because it is finished. We use the past perfect tense to talk about the impossible past condition. We use WOULD HAVE + past participle to talk about the impossible past result. The important thing about the third conditional is that both the condition and result are impossible now.

Second Conditional: unreal possibility or dream

The second conditional is like the first conditional. We are still thinking about the future. We are thinking about a particular condition in the future, and the result of this condition. But there is not a real possibility that this condition will happen. For example, you do not have an air ticket Is it possible to be in that flight? No! No ticket, no flying! But maybe you will buy an air ticket in the future. So you can think about flying in the future, like a dream. It's not very real, but it's still possible.

IF	condition	result
	past simple	WOULD + base verb
If	I won the lottery	I would buy a car.

Notice that we are thinking about a future condition. We use the past simple tense to talk about the future condition. We use WOULD + base verb to talk about the future result.

First Conditional: real possibility

We are talking about the future. We are thinking about a particular condition or situation in the future, and the result of this condition. There is a real possibility that this condition will happen. For example, it is morning. You are at a hotel. You plan to fly to Frankfurt this afternoon. But there are some clouds in the sky. Imagine that it rains. What will you do?

IF	condition	result
	present simple	WILL + base verb
If	it rains	I will stay at the hotel

Notice that we are thinking about a future condition. It is not raining yet. But the sky is cloudy and you think that it could rain. We use the present simple tense to talk about the possible future condition. We use WILL + base verb to talk about the possible future result. The important thing about the first conditional is that there is a real possibility that the condition will happen.

Zero Conditional: certainty

We use the so-called zero conditional when the result of the condition is always true, like a scientific fact.

Take some ice. Put it in a saucepan. Heat the saucepan. What happens? The ice melts (it becomes water). You would be surprised if it did not.

IF	condition	result
	present simple	present simple
If	you heat ice	it melts.

Notice that we are thinking about a result that is always true for this condition. The result of the condition is an absolute certainty. We are not thinking about the future or the past, or even the present. We are thinking about a simple fact. We use the present simple tense to talk about the condition. We also use the present simple tense to talk about the result. The important thing about the zero conditional is that the condition always has the same result.

Introduction

Welcome to Dili&Maya´s blog

In this blog you would learn all of what you need to know about conditionals, we hope you learn a lot

English Conditionals

There are several structures in English that are called conditionals.

"Condition" means "situation or circumstance". If a particular condition is true, then a particular result happens.

If y = 10 then 2y = 20

If y = 3 then 2y = 6

There are three basic conditionals that we use very often. There are some more conditionals that we do not use so often.

In this lesson, we will look at the three basic conditionals as well as the so-called zero conditional. We'll finish with a quiz to check your understanding.