Unreal Conditionals about the Present and Future: IF clauses in English

Hi everyone! It's Jennifer,

and we're going to talk about conditional sentences in English.

I gave you a couple of tasks to think about in the previous lesson.

Let's go over the answers.

First, I asked you this question.

I was lucky to have two helpers. They put their explanations in the comments.

So let me share those before I offer my own.

Ra'ed wrote:

And he gives another example:

And Claire explained that...

I used the past tense, but I’m talking about the present.

I’m imagining a situation to be different from reality. This is an imaginary or hypothetical statement.

Do you know why I wrote that sentence?

My son now attends the middle school/high school in our town.

We have to get up by 6 AM so that he can catch his bus at 6:46 AM.

And let me tell you that it’s really hard to get up when my alarm goes off at 5:45.

So if I had my way, we’d start school an hour later!

The reality is that I’m not going to have my way. I don’t have a choice,

and we will continue to start the school day at the usual time.

In this lesson we’ll focus on unreal conditionals about the present and future.

To imagine a situation in the present or future, we can use an unreal conditional.

Unreal conditionals about the present or future use the past tense in the if-clause (the condition)

and we use WOULD + the base verb in the result.

Again, we can put the condition first or second.

When the condition is first, we use a comma to separate the two clauses.

Also, people like to use “then” when the result clause comes second.

I can use unreal conditionals for different purposes.

I might be imagining something completely impossible.

If could be any animal, I'd be a bird.

I might be considering something that’s possible but unlikely.

For example, if all three of my brothers could visit me for the holidays, I’d be very happy.

Sadly, this is unlikely and very hard to arrange because we’re spread out all over the country.

For either purpose, I use IF + the simple past in the condition

and WOULD + the base verb in the result.

I could also use the modal verbs COULD and MIGHT in the result.

Let’s shift back to real conditionals for a moment.

Do you remember the bonus task from our previous lesson? I asked you to complete this sentence:

Let’s take a look at some of your ideas.

Let's start with Francoise.

I had to Google what that was.

And I think that music is wonderful. I just found out because of your example. Very good.

"If I ever have the chance to play soccer," says Moussab, "then I'll be a famous player."

I hope you get that chance.

Mahmoud wrote:

Next, Aimanno wrote:

Well, thank you for thinking of me for that honor.

And Merna wrote:

I'd be happy to meet you, too.

You're addressing me, so we'll put in commas and add a period.

Dildar wrote:

Zahid wrote:

Again, it's okay. I think there's an argument for the indefinite article, but I prefer making it more specific.

And Lucas is here with his example. He wrote:

I would make brownies for you, Lucas.

If you'd like to see more of my corrections to student example, then visit me on Facebook.

Thank you to everyone who posted an example.

What you need to understand is that we use “ever” to emphasize how unlikely a possibility is.

We can use "ever" with real or unreal conditionals.

You might also hear people use “If and when" together in the condition.

They do this to emphasize that something is unlikely to happen.

But we use "if and when" in real conditionals.

There’s another structure we use for imagining the impossible.

Have you ever heard anyone say, “If I were you…”?

Of course, I can't take your place, so it’s an imaginary statement. It's counterfactual.

So I’m not you, but if I were, here’s what I’d do.

In unreal conditionals about the present or future, we use WERE for all subjects.

We do this to imagine the situation to be different.

Now that you know we can use WERE in unreal conditionals about the present and future,

you’ll understand how we can use the past progressive in the condition.

We’re almost done. Let’s talk about your homework.

Answer this question.

For your bonus task, complete these statements with your own ideas.

That’s all for now. See you again soon for our next lesson on conditionals.

Please remember to like this video and subscribe.

As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!