Conditional
sentences (OUP)
Type 1
conditional sentences
They are used to talk about a possible present
or future situation and its result.
You can use any present tense in
the if clause and any form of the future in the other clause.
Examples:
They won’t get a table unless they’ve already booked.
Can I borrow your
dictionary a moment if you’re not using it?
Type 2 conditional sentences
They are used to talk about hypothetical
or improbable situations in the present or future.
You can use the past tense (simple
or continuous) in the if clause and would + infinitive
(or could/might) in the other clause.
Examples:
How would you know if he wasn’t telling the truth?
If we had a bit more
time here, we could go on an all-day river trip.
Type 3 conditional
sentences are used to talk about a hypothetical situation in the past.
Type 3 conditional sentences are used to talk about a hypothetical situation in the past.
You can use the past perfect
(simple or continuous) in the if clause and would have + past
participle (or could/might have) in the other clause.
Examples:
I
would have picked you up if I had known what time your flight
arrived.
If
I’d been looking where I was going, I would’ve seen the
hole in the road.
Mixed conditionals
If we want to refer to the present
and the past in the same sentence, we can mix tenses from two different types
of conditional, e.g.
Examples:
I wouldn’t
be in this mess (type 2) if I had listened to your advice (type 3).
Jane would
have left Mike by now (type 3) if she didn’t still love him (type 2).
alternatives to if in conditional sentences
We often use as long as/so long as, provided/providing (that), and on condition (that) instead of if to
emphasize what must happen or be done for something else to happen.
Examples:
I’ll tell you what happened as
long as/so long as you promise
not to tell anyone else.
Provided/Providing (that) the bank lends us all the money we need, we’re going to buy
that flat we liked.
They agreed to lend us the car on condition (that) we returned it by the weekend.
That is often omitted in spoken English. On condition that is slightly more
formal than the other expressions.
We can use whether + subject + verb + or not instead of if to emphasize something is true in either of two cases.
I’m going to
sell the car whether you agree with
me or not.
The word order can also be:
I’m going to
sell the car whether or not you agree with me.
We can use even if instead of if for extra emphasis.
Even if I get the
job, I’m going to carry on living with my parents for a while.
We can use supposing when we ask someone to imagine that
something is true or will happen. It is usually used at the beginning of a
sentence.
Supposing you lost
your job, what would you do?
In type 3 conditionals in formal or
literary English we can invert had
and the subject and leave out if. Had I known… = If
I had known…
Had I known that you were coming, I would have bought a bottle of wine.
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