How to Properly Use IF and WHEN - Learn English Grammar

122,660 views ・ 2018-06-05

Learn English with EnglishClass101.com


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Want to speak real English from your first lesson?
0
160
2760
00:02
Sign up for your free lifetime account at EnglishClass101.com.
1
2920
4240
00:08
Hi, everybody.
2
8200
780
00:08
My name is Alisha and today, I'm going to talk about the difference between “if”
3
8990
4880
00:13
and “when.”
4
13870
1250
00:15
Some of you have asked questions about this and I've noticed that some people make some
5
15120
4170
00:19
key and maybe dangerous mistakes between these two words.
6
19290
4499
00:23
So, let's talk about when to use them.
7
23789
3250
00:27
Okay, let's talk about “when” first.
8
27039
2730
00:29
We use “when” when there's 100% certainty something is going to happen.
9
29769
6901
00:36
For example, with travel plans, “when you arrive in the country,” or “when you get
10
36670
6240
00:42
to my house,” for example, or, “when you register for classes.”
11
42910
4379
00:47
So, 100% certainty something is going to happen.
12
47289
5031
00:52
I've made a timeline here, as I like to do, on a timeline here, the image you can think
13
52320
5710
00:58
about is that when, I've used a green line here, it's going to happen, it's definitely
14
58030
5349
01:03
going to happen.
15
63379
1161
01:04
We use “when” when we know something is going to happen, there's 100% certainty here.
16
64540
7090
01:11
This is a key point, it's going to happen.
17
71630
2930
01:14
“If,” on the other hand, we use “if” if there's only a chance something is going
18
74560
6340
01:20
to happen.
19
80900
1000
01:21
There's only a chance, it is not determined, it is not something that has been decided.
20
81900
6030
01:27
“If” is used for a chance something will occur.
21
87930
4140
01:32
“If” is not used in cases where we know something is going to happen or something
22
92070
6240
01:38
should happen.
23
98310
1000
01:39
“If” is only used to express chance or possibility.
24
99310
4330
01:43
On the same timeline here in red, I've made a dotted line to express “if.”
25
103640
5690
01:49
There's a possibility in the future something might happen, there's a chance in the future
26
109330
7060
01:56
something might happen.
27
116390
2080
01:58
In these cases, we use “if.”
28
118470
2240
02:00
For example, “if you lose your student ID card,” “if you get lost,” for example.
29
120710
7870
02:08
So, please, please be careful.
30
128580
2410
02:10
Don't use “if” in cases where there's 100% certainty something is going to happen.
31
130990
6850
02:17
And, on the other hand, don't use “when” in cases where there's only a chance something
32
137840
5770
02:23
will happen.
33
143610
1540
02:25
Making a mistake between these two words can destroy relationships or it can just--it can
34
145150
5920
02:31
really cause some serious confusion.
35
151070
2190
02:33
So, I made a few examples sentences that I've actually seen, some that are similar to these.
36
153260
7370
02:40
Let's take a look and see why making a mistake could be really, really dangerous or could
37
160630
5050
02:45
really damage a relationship if you make a mistake with these two.
38
165680
4300
02:49
Let's take a look.
39
169980
1000
02:50
Alright, so, first sentence.
40
170980
1570
02:52
“Blah, blah, blah, we break up what are you going to do?
41
172550
4110
02:56
So, if you don't know the word, “breakup,” it means to end a romantic relationship, to
42
176660
5710
03:02
break up with someone.
43
182370
1740
03:04
Here, let's think, “if” or “when.”
44
184110
2910
03:07
If we look at this rule, if I say “when,” if I'm speaking to my partner, if I say, “When
45
187020
5400
03:12
we break up, what are you going to do?”
46
192420
2580
03:15
If I choose the word, “when,” it sounds like, in my mind, to me, I've decided, I know
47
195000
6050
03:21
100%, I'm certain, we are going to break up.
48
201050
5260
03:26
This sounds very, very sad and probably to my partner if my partner doesn't know my feelings.
49
206310
4730
03:31
So, if I say, “When we break up, what are you going to do?”
50
211040
3830
03:34
It sounds like I've decided to end their relationship.
51
214870
3770
03:38
That's probably not what I want to say.
52
218640
3150
03:41
In this case, let's use “if.”
53
221790
2170
03:43
“If we break up,” there's a chance, “If we break up, what are you going to do?”
54
223960
5130
03:49
So, let's use “if” here.
55
229090
1450
03:50
Of course, this is a very serious sentence anyway but using “if” shows there's only
56
230540
5850
03:56
a chance of a breakup.
57
236390
1790
03:58
“When” shows it's definite, you've decided already.
58
238180
3440
04:01
So, please be careful.
59
241620
1910
04:03
Let's look at another very interesting sentence.
60
243530
2720
04:06
“Something, something, your wallet gets stolen, call me.”
61
246250
3900
04:10
“Your wallet gets stolen,” so, here, if I use “when” here, “When your wallet
62
250150
4960
04:15
gets stolen, call me,” means the speaker expects the listener’s wallet will be stolen.
63
255110
7000
04:22
That sounds very, very strange, a little mysterious, right?
64
262110
3420
04:25
So, “If your wallet gets stolen,” however, it sounds like there's a chance, maybe the
65
265530
5000
04:30
listener is going somewhere dangerous, for example.
66
270530
3300
04:33
So, in this case, “if” is a much better choice, “when” sounds like the speaker
67
273830
4810
04:38
has some secret plan, maybe.
68
278640
2279
04:40
“When your wallet gets stolen,” sounds like the speaker has maybe made plans or knows
69
280919
6691
04:47
mysteriously somehow that the listener’s wallet is going to get stolen.
70
287610
5180
04:52
Let's use “if” in this sentence.
71
292790
2450
04:55
Here's another one.
72
295240
1000
04:56
“Blah, blah, blah, you hear screaming,” so, “screaming” means loud terrified voice.
73
296240
4700
05:00
“If you hear a loud terrified screaming voice, don't worry.”
74
300940
3590
05:04
So, if you say, “When you hear screaming, don't worry,” or, “If you hear screaming,
75
304530
6230
05:10
don't worry.”
76
310760
1000
05:11
So, I suppose if it's around Halloween, for example, and you're at a haunted house, you
77
311760
6220
05:17
could say “when,” in this case.
78
317980
1950
05:19
But if you're in a regular situation and someone wants to warn you of something, it sounds
79
319930
7470
05:27
a bit strange to say, “When you hear screaming, don't worry.”
80
327400
2989
05:30
But, maybe, “if” is a better choice here.
81
330389
4641
05:35
“If you hear screaming, don't worry,” maybe your friend, for example, is making
82
335030
3609
05:38
a crazy video outside and they're going to shout a lot, for example.
83
338639
5131
05:43
So, there's a chance you may hear screaming.
84
343770
3899
05:47
This one is probably better for “If you hear.”
85
347669
2301
05:49
Of course, in some cases, like I said, in a haunted house situation, maybe you could
86
349970
5800
05:55
use the word “when,” “When you hear screaming, don't worry.”
87
355770
2630
05:58
But, in most cases, “if” is probably a better choice here.
88
358400
4910
06:03
Let's look at another one.
89
363310
1120
06:04
“Let's get a beer blah, blah, blah, the plane lands.”
90
364430
3269
06:07
So, this sentence, the nuance here is the speaker is on a plane, riding on a plane in
91
367699
5511
06:13
the air right now because I have the verb, “lands.”
92
373210
3080
06:16
“Lands” means to touch the land, to stop flying.
93
376290
3120
06:19
So, here, “Let's get a beer,” “if” or “when.”
94
379410
3250
06:22
“If” sounds like there's only a chance the plane is going to land.
95
382660
4930
06:27
“When” sounds like there's a 100% chance the plane is going to land.
96
387590
4940
06:32
So, it's probably a better choice to use “when” here.
97
392530
3669
06:36
We know the plane is going to land.
98
396199
1861
06:38
Unless it's an extreme case like a plane crash, hopefully, not.
99
398060
3650
06:41
But, “Let's get a beer when the plane lands,” is a better choice for this sentence.
100
401710
5850
06:47
Okay, next one.
101
407560
1260
06:48
“Blah, blah, blah he gets fired for this, he's going to be in trouble.”
102
408820
4659
06:53
So, if we use “when” here.
103
413479
3091
06:56
By the way, “fired” means lose your job.
104
416570
3629
07:00
So, “When he gets fired for this,” sounds like the speaker knows, he, this person, is
105
420199
6711
07:06
going to lose his job here.
106
426910
2370
07:09
However, if we use “if,” sounds like there's only a chance or the speaker does not know
107
429280
6020
07:15
whether or not he is going to lose his job.
108
435300
4220
07:19
So, “if” is probably a better choice here.
109
439520
4119
07:23
Of course, if the speaker somehow knows information, they could use the word “when,” in this
110
443639
7931
07:31
case, but, it's probably better to use “if” to show there's only a chance that this person
111
451570
7340
07:38
could get fired for this situation.
112
458910
2410
07:41
Okay.
113
461320
1010
07:42
Let's look at one more.
114
462330
1080
07:43
“She said she would text me, ‘when’ or ‘if’ she had time to get together.”
115
463410
5569
07:48
This is a situation where both “if” and “when” are possible.
116
468979
5281
07:54
So, we can use “if” and we can use “when” here.
117
474260
5370
07:59
The nuance, though, “She will text me if she has time,” so, “if she has time,”
118
479630
6110
08:05
means there's only a chance.
119
485740
1440
08:07
“She has time,” in other words.
120
487180
2299
08:09
If we use “when,” “she” in this sentence, she expects she is going to have time in the
121
489479
5901
08:15
future.
122
495380
1000
08:16
“She said she would text me when she had time,” meaning she expects to have time
123
496380
6659
08:23
and she's going to text the listener.
124
503039
1970
08:25
If, however, the sentence is “if,” “She said she would text me if she had time,”
125
505009
6071
08:31
means “she,” in the sentence, this person, she says, “she” means there's only a chance
126
511080
6009
08:37
she'll have time.
127
517089
1320
08:38
So, please be careful.
128
518409
1980
08:40
Sometimes, both “if” and “when” are correct but the nuance is a little bit different.
129
520389
5370
08:45
So, please keep sentences like these in mind.
130
525759
2841
08:48
Sometimes, especially in a sentence like the first example we looked at, we can potentially
131
528600
5989
08:54
really, really damage relationships if we make a mistake between “if” and “when.”
132
534589
5600
09:00
So, please consider this.
133
540189
1431
09:01
If you have any questions, though, or if you want to try to make an example sentence, please
134
541620
3750
09:05
do so in the comment section below this video.
135
545370
3100
09:08
Thanks very much for watching this video.
136
548470
1859
09:10
If you liked it, please make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel, too.
137
550329
4431
09:14
Check us out at EnglishClass101.com for more stuff as well.
138
554760
3060
09:18
Thanks very much for watching and we'll see you again soon.
139
558060
2580
09:20
Bye.
140
560640
900
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7