How to Properly Use IF and WHEN - Learn English Grammar

121,962 views ・ 2018-06-05

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Hi, everybody.
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My name is Alisha and today, I'm going to talk about the difference between “if”
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and “when.”
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Some of you have asked questions about this and I've noticed that some people make some
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key and maybe dangerous mistakes between these two words.
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So, let's talk about when to use them.
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Okay, let's talk about “when” first.
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We use “when” when there's 100% certainty something is going to happen.
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For example, with travel plans, “when you arrive in the country,” or “when you get
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to my house,” for example, or, “when you register for classes.”
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So, 100% certainty something is going to happen.
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I've made a timeline here, as I like to do, on a timeline here, the image you can think
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about is that when, I've used a green line here, it's going to happen, it's definitely
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going to happen.
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We use “when” when we know something is going to happen, there's 100% certainty here.
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This is a key point, it's going to happen.
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“If,” on the other hand, we use “if” if there's only a chance something is going
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to happen.
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There's only a chance, it is not determined, it is not something that has been decided.
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“If” is used for a chance something will occur.
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“If” is not used in cases where we know something is going to happen or something
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should happen.
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“If” is only used to express chance or possibility.
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On the same timeline here in red, I've made a dotted line to express “if.”
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There's a possibility in the future something might happen, there's a chance in the future
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something might happen.
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In these cases, we use “if.”
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For example, “if you lose your student ID card,” “if you get lost,” for example.
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So, please, please be careful.
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Don't use “if” in cases where there's 100% certainty something is going to happen.
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And, on the other hand, don't use “when” in cases where there's only a chance something
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will happen.
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Making a mistake between these two words can destroy relationships or it can just--it can
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really cause some serious confusion.
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So, I made a few examples sentences that I've actually seen, some that are similar to these.
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Let's take a look and see why making a mistake could be really, really dangerous or could
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really damage a relationship if you make a mistake with these two.
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Let's take a look.
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Alright, so, first sentence.
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“Blah, blah, blah, we break up what are you going to do?
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So, if you don't know the word, “breakup,” it means to end a romantic relationship, to
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break up with someone.
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Here, let's think, “if” or “when.”
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If we look at this rule, if I say “when,” if I'm speaking to my partner, if I say, “When
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we break up, what are you going to do?”
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If I choose the word, “when,” it sounds like, in my mind, to me, I've decided, I know
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100%, I'm certain, we are going to break up.
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This sounds very, very sad and probably to my partner if my partner doesn't know my feelings.
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So, if I say, “When we break up, what are you going to do?”
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It sounds like I've decided to end their relationship.
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That's probably not what I want to say.
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In this case, let's use “if.”
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“If we break up,” there's a chance, “If we break up, what are you going to do?”
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So, let's use “if” here.
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Of course, this is a very serious sentence anyway but using “if” shows there's only
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a chance of a breakup.
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“When” shows it's definite, you've decided already.
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So, please be careful.
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Let's look at another very interesting sentence.
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“Something, something, your wallet gets stolen, call me.”
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“Your wallet gets stolen,” so, here, if I use “when” here, “When your wallet
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gets stolen, call me,” means the speaker expects the listener’s wallet will be stolen.
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That sounds very, very strange, a little mysterious, right?
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So, “If your wallet gets stolen,” however, it sounds like there's a chance, maybe the
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listener is going somewhere dangerous, for example.
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So, in this case, “if” is a much better choice, “when” sounds like the speaker
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has some secret plan, maybe.
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“When your wallet gets stolen,” sounds like the speaker has maybe made plans or knows
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mysteriously somehow that the listener’s wallet is going to get stolen.
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Let's use “if” in this sentence.
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Here's another one.
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“Blah, blah, blah, you hear screaming,” so, “screaming” means loud terrified voice.
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“If you hear a loud terrified screaming voice, don't worry.”
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So, if you say, “When you hear screaming, don't worry,” or, “If you hear screaming,
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don't worry.”
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So, I suppose if it's around Halloween, for example, and you're at a haunted house, you
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could say “when,” in this case.
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But if you're in a regular situation and someone wants to warn you of something, it sounds
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a bit strange to say, “When you hear screaming, don't worry.”
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But, maybe, “if” is a better choice here.
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“If you hear screaming, don't worry,” maybe your friend, for example, is making
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a crazy video outside and they're going to shout a lot, for example.
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So, there's a chance you may hear screaming.
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This one is probably better for “If you hear.”
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Of course, in some cases, like I said, in a haunted house situation, maybe you could
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use the word “when,” “When you hear screaming, don't worry.”
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But, in most cases, “if” is probably a better choice here.
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Let's look at another one.
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“Let's get a beer blah, blah, blah, the plane lands.”
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So, this sentence, the nuance here is the speaker is on a plane, riding on a plane in
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the air right now because I have the verb, “lands.”
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“Lands” means to touch the land, to stop flying.
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So, here, “Let's get a beer,” “if” or “when.”
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“If” sounds like there's only a chance the plane is going to land.
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“When” sounds like there's a 100% chance the plane is going to land.
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So, it's probably a better choice to use “when” here.
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We know the plane is going to land.
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Unless it's an extreme case like a plane crash, hopefully, not.
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But, “Let's get a beer when the plane lands,” is a better choice for this sentence.
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Okay, next one.
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“Blah, blah, blah he gets fired for this, he's going to be in trouble.”
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So, if we use “when” here.
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By the way, “fired” means lose your job.
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So, “When he gets fired for this,” sounds like the speaker knows, he, this person, is
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going to lose his job here.
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However, if we use “if,” sounds like there's only a chance or the speaker does not know
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whether or not he is going to lose his job.
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So, “if” is probably a better choice here.
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Of course, if the speaker somehow knows information, they could use the word “when,” in this
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case, but, it's probably better to use “if” to show there's only a chance that this person
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could get fired for this situation.
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Okay.
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Let's look at one more.
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“She said she would text me, ‘when’ or ‘if’ she had time to get together.”
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This is a situation where both “if” and “when” are possible.
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So, we can use “if” and we can use “when” here.
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The nuance, though, “She will text me if she has time,” so, “if she has time,”
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means there's only a chance.
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“She has time,” in other words.
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If we use “when,” “she” in this sentence, she expects she is going to have time in the
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future.
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“She said she would text me when she had time,” meaning she expects to have time
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and she's going to text the listener.
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If, however, the sentence is “if,” “She said she would text me if she had time,”
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means “she,” in the sentence, this person, she says, “she” means there's only a chance
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she'll have time.
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So, please be careful.
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Sometimes, both “if” and “when” are correct but the nuance is a little bit different.
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So, please keep sentences like these in mind.
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Sometimes, especially in a sentence like the first example we looked at, we can potentially
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really, really damage relationships if we make a mistake between “if” and “when.”
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So, please consider this.
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If you have any questions, though, or if you want to try to make an example sentence, please
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do so in the comment section below this video.
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