Zero, first, second, and third conditionals; mixed conditionals
CONTEXT LISTENING
You are going to hear a spy, known as Double X, talking to his boss, Mrs Seymour, about a photograph which she gives him. Mrs Seymour is asking Double X to do something.
Before you listen, guess what she is asking.
Listen to the beginning of the conversation and check if you were right.
Listen to the whole conversation and answer these questions.
What is wrong with the photo?
Why doesn’t Mrs Seymour give Double X a better photo?
Who sent the photo to Mrs Seymour?
How is it possible to make the picture clearer?
Who is in the photo?
Can you guess why the photo was sent to Mrs Seymour?
Listen again and fill in the gaps.
If you find him, I ______ extremely pleased.
If we ______ a better picture, we ______ it to you.
If she ______ us that, I ______ to ask for your help.
It ______ me somewhere to start if I ______ her phone number.
It ______ a bit clearer if you ______ at it with your eyes half closed.
Look at the Exercise above and complete these sentences.
In sentence 5, the _______ tense is used after if.
In sentence 1, the _______ tense is used after if.
In sentences 2 and 4, the _______ tense is used after if.
In sentence 3, the _______ tense is used after if.
Log into Learnclick to do the exercise and check your answers.
GRAMMAR
The conditional
Conditional sentences tell us a condition if … (or other words like if) and its consequence.
The tenses we use depend on:
whether the condition and its consequence are possible, unlikely or imaginary.
whether they are generally true or are linked to a particular event.
For other words like if which introduce conditions, see Lesson Conditionals 2 - B2.
Often the condition comes before the consequence and in this case the condition is followed by a comma:
If you ring that bell, someone will come to the door.
Sometimes the consequence comes first and in this case we don’t use a comma:
Someone will come to the door if you ring that bell.
We can divide conditionals into four groups.
Zero conditional
We use this to state general truths.
If means the same as when in zero conditional sentences:
If/When you’re in love, nothing else matters.
= Nothing else matters if/when you’re in love.
We use this to state general truths.
If/When it rains, we get terrible traffic jams. = We get terrible traffic jams if/when it rains.
If/When we heat ice, it melts. = Ice melts if/when we heat it.
First Conditional
We use this for a condition which we believe is possible. We use a present tense after if even though we are very often referring to a future possibility:
If you visit me, I’ll take you to the Tower of London. (not If you’ll visit) (= it’s possible you will visit me)
If it snows, we’ll go skiing. (= it’s possible that it will snow, we can’t be certain)
If I see Ruth, I’ll give her your message (= it’s possible I’ll see her but I might not)
Sometimes we use the imperative followed by and to express this kind of condition (the imperative always comes first).
Pass this exam and we’ll give you a motorbike.
This form is more common in spoken English. We usually use it for promises and threats:
Pass this exam and we’ll give you a motorbike.
Wait a minute and I’ll be able to help you.
Break that jug and you’ll have to pay for it.
We can use other modal verbs in the result part of the sentence:
Second conditional
We use this for an imaginary condition, which we believe to be impossible or very improbable.
We use the past tense after if even though we are referring to the present or future:
The world would seem wonderful if you were in love. (= but you’re not in love, so the world doesn’t seem wonderful)
If it snowed, we’d (would) go skiing. (= I think it’s very unlikely that it will snow)
We often use were instead of was in the if clause, especially when we write.
It is more formal:
If I wasn’t/weren’t so tired, I’d go out with my friends this evening.
The product would attract more customers if it was/were less expensive.
We always use were in the phrase If I were you, used to give advice:
If I were you, I wouldn’t phone him.
Third conditional
We use this to talk about past events which cannot be changed, so we know that the condition is impossible and its consequence is imaginary:
The world would have seemed wonderful if you’d (had) been in love. (= but you weren’t in love so the world didn’t seem wonderful)
If it had snowed, we’d (would) have gone skiing. (= but it didn’t snow, so we didn’t go skiing)
I’d (would) have visited you every weekend if you’d (had) invited me. (= but you didn’t invite me, so I didn’t visit you.)
Mixed conditionals
might and could
We sometimes meet sentences which contain a mixture of 2nd and 3rd conditionals because of their particular context:
If you lived in London, I’d have visited you by now. (= but you don’t live in London so I haven’t visited you)
If the weather had been fine last week, there would be roses in my garden. (= but the weather was bad last week so there are no roses in my garden now)
Lesley wouldn’t have missed the bus if she was better organised. (= she missed the bus because she is a badly organised person)
You could have used my car yesterday if the battery wasn’t flat. (= the battery is still flat)
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