Hello, I'm Gill at www.engvid.com and today's
lesson is on the four conditional tenses, okay? So, you may already be familiar with this,
the zero conditional, first conditional, second conditional, third conditional okay? And they all have a slightly different way
of being constructed, the way you put them together with different tenses, okay. So, let's just run through them and, hopefully,
as you can see all four on the board together, you can see he differences between them. Okay, so let's look at the zero conditional,
which is the simplest one, really, and this is for statements which are true in general,
they're generally true. So, for example: The TV comes on if you press
the button. Press the button, either on the TV or on the
remote and the TV comes on. So - and also, the word "if" is used in all
of these, all of these conditionals, "if" is the sort of pivotal word. If you do something, then something else will happen. That sort of thing. So, the TV comes on if you press the button,
and you can put "if" either in the middle of the sentence or at the beginning of the
sentence. So, you could also say "If you press the button,
the TV comes on." It doesn't usually matter which order you
put them in. So, here's another example: If you heat water
to 100° C, it boils. The water boils, if you heat water, okay? So, these sentences are made up of two clauses,
there's the "if" clause and there's the main clause. The main clause there is "the TV comes on"
and then the "if" clause, which is also called a subordinate clause, comes there, "if you
press the button". This one, we start with the "if" clause, "If
you heat water to 100° C" and then the main clause, "it boils", the water boils, that's
the main clause. So, the sentences are made up of two clauses
joined together with "if" somehow, whether it's at the beginning or in the middle, and
for both clauses, you use the present simple tense. It boils, you heat, you press, the TV comes
on. That's all present simple tense for zero conditional,
okay? So, that's very simple. Things that are true in general. Right. So, let's move onto the first conditional
and these are things which are sort of real, real things in real life, things which are
possible, things that you feel are possible, so: If I see her, I will tell her. If you see your friend, you have something
to tell her. So, if I see her, I will tell her. So again, we have "if" and "I see" is present
simple and then "I will", because this is possible, it's not happening now, it could
happen in the future, if I see her maybe later today or tomorrow, I will tell her. So then "will", you're using the future there. So, will + the verb, I will tell her. That's the future. Okay. So, it's present simple for the "if" clause
and future for the main clause. I will tell her if I see her, you can say
it that way around, okay? And then another one: I will go shopping on
the way home if I have time. Okay, so maybe you're going out to work and
then you're coming home from work and if you have - if I have time on the way home from
work, I will go shopping. Okay, so, I will - future, main clause. If I have time - I have, present simple, okay. So, that is a kind of intention. You're saying "Yes, I will do that if I have
time". So, it's a real situation, it's something
that's quite possible. The first conditional, okay. And then we're getting further and further
away now with the second conditional to what's possible, because this second conditional
is if it's impossible or unlikely, so if something is likely to happen, it will probably happen. And if something is unlikely, that's the negative
prefix, that's unlikely, so that's not probably going to happen. So, it's either impossible or probably not
going to happen, unlikely. So, second conditional. So, let's have a look at the examples here. So, we still have "if": If I won a lot of
money I would buy a big house. And again, you can turn it round: I would
buy a big house if I won a lot of money. It doesn't matter which way round you put
it, it means the same. And here: If I had his number, I would call
him. But it means I don't have his number, so I
can't call him. So, if I had his number, I would call him,
but I have no idea what his number is or how to get his number, okay. So, the tenses here are the past simple: if
I won, that's the past tense of "to win", to win. So, if I won a lot of money, that's the past
simple, I would buy, so it's would + the verb, would buy a big house, okay? So, the "if" clause has the past simple, the
main clause has would + the verb, the base verb, "to buy", okay? And then: If I had his number, past simple,
"I had", the verb "to have", past tense, "had", so "If I had his number, I would call him." So, would + the base verb "to call", I would
call him if I had his number. It's a bit strange to use the past tense because
these are things that could never happen, possibly, they might never happen, so it might
seem strange to use the past tense for that, but that's just the way that the grammar works. Okay. Right. So, we've got further and further away from
reality and possibility, and then finally, with the third conditional, the last one,
this is where it's too late to do anything. Something happened in the past. You could have done something, but you have
missed the opportunity and you can't do it now. It's too late. Too late now. Okay. So, let's have a look at the examples: I would
have lost weight - if you're on a diet, you're trying to lose some weight - I would have
lost weight if I hadn't eaten so much. It's fairly obvious if you keep eating and
you're on a diet, you're never going to lose any weight. So, it's an obvious statement but it's the
third conditional. It's too late now to lose - of course, in
the future, you can try again, you can keep trying, but at this point in time, you have
not lost weight on your diet because you have just been eating a lot. So, I would have lost weight if I had not
eaten so much. And then this example: If - again - If I had
gone to bed earlier, I would have woken up in time to catch the train. Okay, so we've got some quite complex tenses
going on there. So, let's have a look. So, we've got the past perfect, so with the
"if" clause, no, not with the "if" clause, yes, the past perfect, yes, "if I had not
eaten" is the past perfect, sorry, I get confused myself. "If I had not eaten", so had + eaten is the
past perfect. If you say, "I have eaten", that's the present
perfect, okay, but this is the past perfect. I had not eaten. So, that's the past perfect with the "if"
clause, okay. And then the other part, the main clause has
would have + the past participle, so "I would have lost", would have and then lost is the
past participle of the verb "to lose", okay. Right. And then the second example: If I had gone
- past perfect, if you say, "I have gone" with the V in "have", "I have gone", that's
the present perfect. If you have the past perfect, it's "had gone",
had gone, past perfect. "If I had gone to bed earlier, I would have
woken up", so "to wake", the verb "to wake", when you wake up in the morning, if the alarm
clock goes or if you just wake up naturally, "I would have woken up in time to catch the
train". So, that's the most complex construction,
the third conditional. But this is - it's quite a complex idea as
well, that you missed an opportunity. If you - if I had gone to bed earlier, I would
have had more sleep and it would have been easier to wake up and then I could get up
and get out and catch the train. Okay. So, I hope that helps to show how these four
conditionals work and then in the second part of the lesson, I have a little test for you
for you to fill in some gaps. Okay, so let's have a look at some sentences
with some gaps in them and let's see which conditionals fit in those gaps. So, we have four sentences, there are four
conditional tenses, so one of those goes in each. So, let's have a look at the sentences first
and then we'll go back over it. So, here's the first one: If you didn't smoke
- cigarettes - if you didn't smoke, you ________ feel a lot better. Okay? And then the next one: If it's sunny tomorrow
we _____ go to the beach. Right. Next one: If she had gone to university, she
_____ _____ found a really good job. Okay. And then finally: If it snows, travelling
_____ more difficult. And a form of the verb "to be" goes in that
gap, okay. So, let's have a look, then. So, you can probably see immediately they're
not in this order. I have deliberately put them in a different
order so that you don't know which one is which, okay. So, let's have a look. If you didn't smoke, you _____ feel a lot
better. So, this is someone who does smoke, and you're
giving them advice. What would it be like if they didn't smoke,
okay? If you didn't smoke, you - so what's the missing
word here, and which conditional is it? Okay, so it's "would". You would feel a lot better. So, that's quite a move away from the reality
of the situation. It's a theoretical idea. It - for someone who does smoke now, if they
stop smoking, that's possible, but what are the chances of someone stopping smoking? Okay. So, if you didn't smoke you would feel a lot
better. So, which conditional do you think that is? So, it's the second, that's the second conditional,
using did, past tense, past simple, and then would + a verb, would feel, okay? Right. Next one: If it's sunny tomorrow, we _____
go to the beach. So tomorrow is in the future, so there's a
clue. If it's sunny tomorrow, we - what's the future
tense, what's the verb you always use with the future, the auxiliary verb? We will, okay? So, the future tense, "we will go the beach
if it is" - so present simple there, but it's about the future - "If it is sunny tomorrow,
we will go to the beach". So, do you remember which? It's not two, obviously - which of the remaining
ones would you say that is? Is it zero, or one, or three? Okay, so it's one. It's the first conditional, okay? Right. Moving on. If she had gone to university, she _____ _____
found a really good job. So, that's quite a complex construction. If she had gone, so "had gone" is past perfect,
okay? She _____ _____ - so this means she didn't
go to university. So, she probably hasn't found a good job. So, does that mean it's too late now? Is it the one where it's too late? So, if she had gone to university, she - do
you remember what to put here? She would have, would have, she would have
found a really good job if she had gone to university. So, in a way, it's never too late to go to
university within reason, but it's too late for her at the moment. So, okay, so that's the most complicated one,
the third, the third conditional. So, finally then, the last one, and this is
the simplest one: If it snows - snows, present simple - travelling ____ more difficult. And this is the verb "to be" here, travelling,
you're saying travelling ____ more difficult in the present simple of the verb "to be",
travelling is, so travelling is more difficult if it snows, which is a general, usually true
statement. That is usually the case. It's generally true. So, we only have one conditional left, the
zero, so that's the zero conditional at the end there. Okay, so I hope that's been a useful overview
of the four conditional tenses and clarified how to construct them. So, if you'd like to go the website www.engvid.com, there's a quiz there where you can test out your knowledge further, and thank you
very much for watching and see you again soon. Bye for now.
