EVERYTHING about the FIRST CONDITIONAL - English Grammar for B2 First (FCE)

The first conditional! Like the zero conditional people think it's easy! But i'm telling you it's not! It's easy at first but it gets so much more complicated and you need to know these complications for the B2 First exam! My name is Toby, this is SMASH English and here is everything and I mean everything that you need to know about the first conditional for the B2 First Cambridge exam! Let's start with the basics and I mean the very basics, but keep watching until the end of the video because you are going to see some things that will change the way you look at the first conditional forever! Forever! Here is the most boring first conditional in the world! The first conditional that every teacher uses! If you study you will pass the exam. So boring! So again we have two clauses: we have the condition "if you study" and the result "you will pass the exam". The grammar then is if plus subject plus present simple plus subject plus will plus infinitive. We use the first conditional to talk about things that are likely or probable to happen in the future. And most English lessons on the first conditional finish here, but not this one! Let's make things complicated and terrible because that's what I like to do to improve your knowledge. And knowledge is power and if you know the knowledge you will be like me! An english God! That is not what I am... What am I talking about? You can use any present tense and any future tense. Yup. ANY present tense and yup ANY future tense. The important thing is that we have if plus a present tense and then plus a future tense. We could use the present simple with the future continuous. If my pet bird dies I will be crying for years. We could use the present perfect with the future simple. If they haven't done their homework I will be so angry. Or we can go crazy, and i'm really sorry for doing this to you... We could use the present continuous with the future perfect continuous. If I'm still living here next year I will have been living here for 10 years. We could use the present simple with the future perfect. If you eat all that you will have eaten 6000 calories in an hour. See! Already the simple first conditional is looking a lot more complicated. You can change the clause order so put the result clause first and the condition clause second. This doesn't change the meaning. We can replace if. Okay so we have a lot of options here so pay attention. Conjunctions of time. We can replace if with time conjunctions like after, as soon as, before, until, when. After you've eaten all of that you'll feel sick as soon. As I arrive I will call you. Before you submit your essay I'll check it for you. When you see me dance you will be amazed and not in a good way. Unless. We can replace if with unless (like the zero conditional) and this changes the meaning. Normally we put the result clause first when we do this otherwise it seems a bit too formal. For example: I'll go to the party unless she goes too. This means that I will go to the party if she doesn't go because I hate her. Eww, "her"... gross... In case. We can replace if with in case but this changes the meaning. In case means "in preparation for the possibility that". We are preparing for something we think might happen. For example we will bring umbrellas in case it rains. This doesn't mean it is raining. It doesn't mean it is going to rain. It means it might rain and in preparation for that possibility we will bring our umbrellas. I will book a table in case the restaurant is busy. I do not know if the restaurant will be busy or not, but there is a possibility that it will be and in preparation for that possibility i will book a table. We can use modal verbs. We can replace will with may or might if we think something is less probable. For example: After you have eaten all of that food you might be sick. I am not sure that you will be sick and because I'm not sure I replace will with might. If they are on special offer I may buy them. I am not certain I will buy them and so I've said may instead of will. We can make offers or give advice. We can also use the first conditional for offers and advice. To do this we replace will with can for an offer or should for advice. For example: if you see her you really should apologize. If you are too scared to apologize I can do that for you if you want, because I'm a great guy! Look at me... And you thought the first conditional was easy? How wrong you were... But it is easy if you know how and i'm telling you how so say thank you because now you know everything about the first conditional so no one can stop you from reaching your dreams! And now, like I said at the beginning of the video, I'm going to show you something something so amazing that it will change your view of the first conditional forever! Forever! What conditional is this? If you get home late please be quiet. Well to me it looks like a zero conditional. Oh and please watch my video on zero conditionals. Like this one the zero conditional is much more complicated than you think. However we don't know if it is the zero conditional. We don't have enough context. This is because it could also be a first conditional. A first conditional without a future tense!? What!? What!? What!? I don't know! This is crazy! If you are talking about something general then this imperative is part of a zero conditional. However if we are talking about a future event then it becomes a first conditional, even though the grammar has not changed! Oh, English! I hate you so! For the first conditional maybe you are going out tonight and you live with your parents or a flatmate and they need to sleep and so they say "if you get home late please be quiet". But this only applies to one specific event in the future. For the zero conditional this becomes a general rule in the house. It was true yesterday, it's true today and it will be true tomorrow! This ALWAYS applies. Remember the first conditional is specific! It's talking about something in the future. The zero conditional is general! It's always true or it was always true in the past. Yeah! The zero conditional can also be the past! Watch my video on it if you didn't know that! Very important! And with that we are finished! See! The first conditional is a lot more difficult than most people think but if you know the rules it really is not a problem! If you liked the video don't forget to SMASH that like button, subscribe if you haven't already, leave a comment down below! My name is Toby and this was SMASH English... you

Channel: SMASH English - Cambridge English Exam Preparation

Views: 2,792

Keywords: first conditional b2 first, first conditional b2, first conditional fce, first conditional grammar b2, first conditional grammar, first conditional grammar fce, first conditional grammar b2 first, b2 first conditionals, fce conditionals, b2 conditionals, b2 first grammar, fce grammar, b2 grammar, 1st conditional b2, 1st conditional b2 first, 1st conditional fce, smash english, fce exam, b2 first exam, b2 exam, b2 cambridge grammar

Id: qe5rp2j9oqg

Length: 9min 17sec (557 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 19 2020