Speaking English - How to use "unless"

608,984 views ・ 2013-07-10

Learn English with Rebecca


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

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Hi. My name is Rebecca from www.engvid.com. In today's lesson, you'll learn how to use
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the word "unless" correctly in English. Now, the word "unless" expresses a negative condition.
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That means that unless one thing happens, something else cannot happen. Let's look at
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some examples on the board, and I think you'll learn this very easily, okay? Let's get started.
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Now, for example, let's take the first sentence: "You can't go to university if you don't finish
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high school." So the negative condition here is "if you don't finish high school", right?
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So instead of saying "if you don't", you could say, "You can't go to university unless you
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finish high school." Okay? "You can't go to university if you don't finish high school"
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or "You can't go to university unless you finish." So here, you see that we had to use
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the negative words, "if you don't". But when we use the word "unless", it does that automatically.
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Let's look at another example: "You can't enter the club if you don't have ID." "ID"
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is short for "identification". "You can't enter the club unless you have ID. You can't
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enter the club unless you have ID." Next one: "You can't visit Italy if you don't
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get a visa." So what do we do? We place this, and we can say, "You can't visit Italy unless you get a visa."
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"You can't borrow books if you don't have a library card." How would we change that
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using "unless"? "You can't borrow books unless you have a library card."
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Last one: "You can't pass the TOEFL if you don't prepare." How would you change that
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using "unless"? "You can't pass the TOEFL unless you prepare." All right?
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Next, I'll give you an exercise so you can practice this a little bit better.
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Now, let's try a couple of examples with "unless". Let's say this is the situation: "John can't
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go out unless he does a few things." So how would you say that? "John can't go out unless
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he finishes his homework; unless he cleans his room; unless he takes a shower." Okay?
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Good. Let's see if you can do this one. You can
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say it at home: "I can't improve my English unless I read more books; I write more often;
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I watch more EngVid lessons." Okay? So you see how "unless" can be used in these
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examples. Try your best to write some sentences of your own, create a situation that, "Today,
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I can't do this unless I do that." And each day, if you write a sentence like that with
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what you need to do or what has to happen before something else can happen, you will
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learn how to use the word "unless". So if you'd like to do a quiz on this subject,
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you can go to our website: www.engvid.com. All the best with your English. Bye, for now.
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