Present Real Conditionals: English Grammar - IF clauses

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Welcome back! Let’s go over the answers to the task from the first lesson. Are you ready?

In Part One, I asked you to decide if each sentence is about a real or an unreal situation.

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REAL – This is about a very likely situation in the future.

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UNREAL – Here I’m just imagining a situation. It’s an impossible or unlikely future. Tomorrow, of course, the sun will rise.

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REAL – This is practical advice for an everyday situation. I’m speaking generally about the present.

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UNREAL – Here I’m imagining the past differently. If the past had been different, then something else would be different right now.

So I’m talking about how the past influences the present. The situation is unreal or what some would call counterfactual.

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REAL – I’m talking about something that is possible or very likely to happen in the near future.

How did you do in the first part?

It’s important to understand when people are talking about fact and real possibilities and when people are just speaking hypothetically,

meaning they’re just imagining situations in a different way, different from reality.

Now let’s talk about Part Two. Did you take time to think about your answers?

A. I asked if both sentences are correct.

The answer is YES. Both are correct.

When we make conditional sentences, we have two parts: a condition and a result.

The result is the main idea or the main clause. The condition is a dependent clause. Together they make a complex sentence.

What’s important to understand is that the result only happens when the condition is met.

It doesn’t matter which clause...which part comes first. But…when we write, we need to pay attention to punctuation. Let’s look at the second question.

B. Is a comma needed when I write these sentences?

No. A comma is only needed in the first sentence. When the if-clause or condition is first, then we need a comma.

Remember this rule because it will help you with pronunciation, too.

When the if clause is second, there’s (usually) no pause in the middle of the sentence. Listen.

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BUT when that if-clause is first, this is (often) a pause.

You often hear a change in pitch at the end of that first clause.

Listen to my intonation. You'll hear a pause in the middle, between the two clauses.

And the two clauses have different intonation patterns.

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All right. Now we’re going to look at different types of conditionals, starting with REAL conditionals about the present.

These are situations about habits, routines, facts, and general truths.

Here's an example. [reads]

We all know this because it happens to all of us.

Remember my bonus question in Lesson 1?

I asked what do you do if you forget someone’s name. Here I was asking for advice.

REAL conditionals in the present can be for advice and instructions. Let’s look at some of your answers to my question.

I’m going to go on my computer.

Okay. Marat starts us off with his example:

Good example. Good approach.

My question uses the present tense in both parts, in both clauses

and Mara uses the present tense in both parts, in both clauses.

That's good advice, too.

This is correct, but it's making the situation seem like a likely possible situation in the future.

So if we want to answer the question and keep this as a present factual conditional,

let's change this to the present.

Okay. Gabriel wrote, "When..."

"Buddy"..."dude."

Yes. That's a good strategy. Very clever.

And I like that Gabriel actually chose to use "when" in his answer, not "if."

These are common situations. There are habits.

And we can use "when" or "if" with very little different in meaning.

If I forget someone's name...When I forget someone's name...

I usually call them "friend" or something like that.

Yes, you could do that.

But that would be an unreal situation. You're imagining the possibility.

Let's change it to a real situation.

If I forget someone's name, I ask somebody else who remembers it.

That's good. I ask them politely...to do what?

To remind me. Or I ask them what their name is.

Good, Susana.

Let's go like this so we can separate it.

Yes, you can do that.

Again, that would be a real or likely situation in the future.

Let's stick to the present for this exercise.

What do you do when this happens? In general.

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

So real conditionals about the present, factual conditionals about the present use the present tense in both clauses. The condition and the result.

But you can also use modal verbs in the result clause. For example, CAN for ability or SHOULD for advice:

If you forget someone’s name, you can ask them politely to remind you. If you forget someone’s name, you shouldn’t be too embarrassed. Just apologize.

You can also use imperatives in the result clause: If you forget someone’s name, politely ask them to remind you. If you forget someone’s name, don’t be too embarrassed.

And note that with these real and factual conditionals, we can also use WHEN or WHENEVER instead of IF. The meaning doesn’t really change.

Perhaps the use of WHEN more easily recognizes that these situations are common and they happen.

Here are two examples. They’re questions.

Here are some answers to those questions from my Facebook page.

This post reached over 4,000 people and quite a lot of you posted your ideas.

Let's look at just a few.

And his second suggestion was to wolf it down, eat it quickly.

Andrei answered the second question with a bit of humor.

Well, that's just a suggestion. Or you skip breakfast, right?

There are some wonderful responses here, and if you'd like to read more, please come to my Facebook page and check them out.

And note that many people often use "then" in the result clause.

You don't have to, but you can.

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Are you ready for your next task?

Finish my sentences.

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Here’s a bonus question you can answer in the comments.

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I want you to write your example two ways.

With the if-clause first, and then with the if-clause second.

Here's my example. [reads]

That’s all for now. I'll see you again soon for our next lesson on conditionals.

If you found this helpful, pease remember to like this video, and if you haven't already, please subscribe.

As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!