THE CONDITIONALS - 0,1,2 & 3 Conditionals& QUIZ - English Grammar Lesson (+ Free PDF & Quiz)

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- Hello, everyone and welcome back

to English with Lucy today.

Very exciting, I have a grammar lesson for you.

We are going to discuss the four conditionals.

This is a very, very important lesson.

I know that this is a topic,

that lots of my students struggle with.

There's so much to remember,

but hopefully I can clarify,

lots of your doubts today.

To help you even further, I have created a PDF which covers

everything we're going to talk

about, and it also has a quiz,

so you can practise what you've learned,

and you can check your understanding.

If you would like to download that free PDF and quiz,

all you've got to do is click on the link

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as soon as it becomes available,

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It's automatic and very convenient and it means every week,

you get lovely new activities,

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Don't be afraid to share your results

in the comment section.

Right, let's get started with the grammar lesson.

So we're going to talk about the four conditionals.

We have the zero conditional,

the first conditional,

the second conditional,

and can you guess what the last conditional is?

Congratulations, it's the third conditional.

Each conditional sentence has an if clause,

and a main clause.

With all conditional sentences,

the order of these clauses is not fixed,

so you can swap them around.

If I practise, I will get better.

I will get better, if I practise.

It doesn't matter which way,

but when you change the order of the clauses,

the meaning is the same.

Now we've got that introduction out of the way,

let's start with the zero conditional.

A zero conditional sentence consists

of two present simple verbs.

One is in the if clause,

and one is in the main clause.

Both parts of the sentence are in the present tense.

Nice and easy!

If this thing happens,

that thing happens.

Or that thing happens,

if this thing happens.

We use the zero conditional to talk about general truths.

When in general there is a guaranteed result,

like scientific facts.

If you heat water, it evaporates,

that's a scientific fact.

We're not talking about specific conditions

on that day or anything.

In general, if you heat water, it evaporates.

Interestingly, you can usually replace

if with when or whenever, without the meaning changing.

When I am happy, I smile.

I smile when I'm happy.

Remember that when we use the word you in zero conditionals,

we are often talking about people in general,

not you in particular.

If you melt ice, it becomes a liquid.

Let's take a look at some examples.

If I'm sad, I eat chocolate.

People die if they don't drink enough water.

If dogs get angry, they growl.

If you don't eat enough, you lose weight.

If British people get bored, they talk about the weather.

That's a scientific fact.

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We often use the zero conditional to give instructions,

with the imperative in the main clause.

If she rings the doorbell, tell her to go away.

Text me if you get lost.

Okay.

Before we move on to the first conditional,

I want you to check your understanding in that PDF,

to make sure you've grasped everything,

you've understood everything.

Right, let's move on to the first conditional.

The first conditional has the present simple

after if and then the future in the main clause.

If this thing happens,

that thing will happen.

We use the first conditional to talk about things

that might happen in the future.

We can't know for sure what will happen in the future,

but we can use the first conditional

to talk about things that will probably be true.

With the zero conditional,

we spoke in general,

but with the first conditional

we speak about the real world,

and about specific situations.

Some examples, if we don't leave now,

we will miss the train.

If you study hard,

you will pass the exam.

If I see my boss, I'll ask her.

Contraction of I will, I'll.

I'll ask her!

If it gets colder, we'll light a fire.

(air whooshing)

I'll finish my painting,

if I have time.

Now it's important to consider modals,

when it comes to the first conditional.

You can use modals in the main clause,

in place of will to express a recommendation,

a degree of certainty, permission.

Take a look!

If we don't leave now, we might miss the train.

If you study hard, you could pass the exam.

If I see my boss, I shall ask her.

If it gets colder, we should light a fire.

I'll be able to finish my painting,

if I have time.

Right, let's move on to the second conditional.

The second conditional uses the past simple

after if then would and the infinitive,

that's the most common,

or would and the present continuous.

And I'll explain this later.

Sometimes this gets left out of lessons,

but I think it's important that you see

it in case you come across it and think, what's that?

(laughs)

If this thing happened,

that thing would happen,

or if this thing happened,

that thing would be happening.

We can use the second conditional to talk about things

in the future,

that are probably not going to be true.

We often use it to talk about dreams and fantasies.

For example, if I won the lottery,

I would buy a house in Barbados.

Or if he had more money,

he would buy a boat.

We can also use the second conditional

to talk about things in the present that are impossible.

In this case, it's very common to use

I were instead of I was.

If I were you, I would stop poking the cat.

I can't be you, it's impossible.

But if I were you, I would stop that.

It's a good way of giving advice or a warning.

If he were younger,

I would ask him out.

It's impossible, he can't be younger,

so I'm not going to ask him out.

If I was taller, I would wear high heels.

You can choose between I was and I were.

I were sounds a little more formal.

(air whooshing)

I've got a little extra bit of homework

for you, I want you to answer

it in the comment section down below.

I want you to answer this question.

If you were an animal,

which one would you be and why?

If I were an animal, I would be a fruit bat,

(air whooshing)

because I'm completely addicted to fruit.

Let me know, I'm so excited to see

what you come up with, you always surprise me.

Now, let's talk about that continuous.

Now for the slightly complicated bit.

In second conditional sentences,

the continuous form of the present conditional can be used.

If this thing happened, that thing would be happening.

If I spoke French, I would be living in Paris.

I don't speak French, so I couldn't be living

in Paris right now.

(air whooshing)

If I had an exam tomorrow,

I would be revising right now.

It's not so common,

but it's important that you know about it.

Let's move on to the last one,

the third conditional, I can't believe we are here already.

We use the third conditional to talk about the past.

It's used to talk about a situation that did not happen,

and to imagine the results,

of this imaginary situation.

We use if and past perfect,

and then would have and past participle in the main clause.

If this thing had happened,

that thing would have happened.

If I had studied harder, I would have passed the exam,

but I didn't study hard enough, so I didn't pass the exam.

(air whooshing)

If we had left earlier,

we wouldn't have arrived late.

You wouldn't be so tired, if you had gone to bed earlier.

I hope that's enough.

(air whooshing)

Right, that is it for my lesson on conditionals.

There is more to conditionals,

maybe we'll cover that another day,

but I think that gives you a really strong foundation.

Now I want you to test your learning.

I have created a quiz

for you, it goes through zero, first, second

and third conditionals.

The quiz is on the PDF,

which has got all of the information from today's lesson.

Just click on the link in the description box,

enter your name and email address,

you sign up to my mailing list,

and you will receive the PDF directly in your inbox.

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as soon as they're available.

If you would like to improve your vocabulary

and your listening skills,

then I should just remind

you that I have my vlogging channel,

where I vlog my daily life here on a farm

in the English countryside,

and every single vlog is completely subtitled,

for your understandings.

So you can pick up lots of words

because I show a lot of daily tasks,

things that you can use that are relevant to you.

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where I have a really cool pronunciation tool,

where you can click on a phoneme

and hear me say it, and hear me say words,

that contain that phoneme.

I will see you soon for another lesson.

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