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in the video to learn more. So, I've been thinking about how I teach and how I see other teachers teach, both in real classrooms and online. And I realized something. Everyone, including me,
teaches conditionals all wrong. (light music) If you studied or taught English, then chances are you've
probably seen a textbook like one of these. Actually, I really like
"New English File". It's the teacher's favorite. But, they have a problem,
as do all textbooks, as do all teachers. And that problem is that
it's too prescriptive. Now, what I'm talking about
is prescriptive grammar versus descriptive grammar. Basically, basically prescriptive grammar, that is focused on
traditional grammar rules. Those don't change. And if you change something
in that grammar structure, you're a bad person and
you're rubbish at English. Descriptive grammar, however, that teaches how we really talk. Yes, there are rules, but we
know how to bend those rules. And that's what I want all
ESL teachers to change. Teach real English and not just the rules. Because when you do
that, English students go to an English-speaking country
and they feel really bad about their English because they're like, "I
don't understand anyone. Is my English that bad or
is everyone speaking wrong? Must be me. I must be stupid." In this video, I've
got great news for you. Your English is fine and you're brilliant. But, this is the problem. All teachers, myself
included, we tend to follow the rules a bit too strictly. Now as a beginner in English, that's good. You need to learn context. You need to learn how grammar works to explain context and time references. But, as you get more advanced, you learn how to break those rules. Most of the time, especially
for online teachers, we tend to follow the
rules a bit too strictly. Why? Because some idiot in the
comments is gonna be like, "Um actually, the grammar rule is this and you're teaching teaching students how to speak wrong, wrongly. Wait, (beep)." If you're a teacher, don't
listen to your YouTube comments, ever. If you're a student, don't
listen to YouTube comments for grammar tips. Very rarely are they correct. But for now though, I want to show you how
we can update teaching. Let me show you. (air whooshing) I started this video by saying I've been teaching
conditionals all wrong. Well, probably everyone
has and this is why. You've learned there are
four conditionals, right? So, we've got zero which describes things which are always true. If this happens, then this happens. It's useful for giving information, talking about science, that kind of thing. For example. I don't know if you've heard this one. But if you play Led Zeppelin backwards, you can hear the devil. I know, it sounds ridiculous. Unbelievable, right? But, then I tried it. (record playing backwards) ♪ I'm gonna eat your soul ♪ The grammar for this, we've got
if with a present tense verb and a present tense verb for the result. So, if this happens this happens, always. Again, really good for
information or scientific facts. Then, there's the first
conditional and that's like this. So, something realistic
happens in the future. This is good for warnings, for example. If you keep making that noise,
I'm gonna break up with you. Grammatically, we have if
with a present tense verb. And the result is future,
so we use future tense. So, I'm gonna, I'm going
to, or I will, I'll, whichever your preference
is, it doesn't matter. And again, it's for a future, it really can or will happen. Usually for warnings, threats, promises, you know, real things. But, if we need to use our imagination for something that's not real, impossible, or just imaginary, you know,
we're talking hypothetically. What if maybe this thing? Then, we need to use second conditional. If I were you, I'd break up with him. This is the second conditional,
if with a past tense verb. We're talking in the future or now, but that verb should be in the past tense. Why? Because we're imagining. So, you see if and a past tense verb, just know it's an imaginary situation. But, if you want to be completely sure if this situation is just imaginary, you just have to look for
that magic word, would. This means, well, the
situation isn't real, I'm just imagining it. You know, like if I had
£1 million, I would buy a, what would I buy, snacks. I'd spend £1 million on snacks. So yeah, you can abbreviate
that to I'd, that's fine. You can also use could if you want to stress the possibility
that that situation brings. So remember that yes, the verb is past but the situation is present or future. If we need to talk about a different past, an imaginary past, then we
need the third conditional, and that's this. If I hadn't met you, I
wouldn't have fallen in love. Now, we are imagining a different past, a past that didn't happen. So for this, we need the if,
again, and a had, or a hadn't for a negative, with the verb
three, or past participle. And what is the result of that? How does that different
past affect the past? Well, I wouldn't have a verb
three, or past participle. Those are the structures
of the conditions, zero, one, two, and three here. So, we know how a different past, if I hadn't met you, would
create a different past. I wouldn't have fallen
in love in the past. But, let's say he wants to
say, if I hadn't met you, right now I'm not in love. How can he say that? Well, you already know because it's from the
second conditional grammar. So, let's mix them and create this. I wouldn't be in love. Now, we're just using would or
wouldn't with the infinitive, the base verb, verb one. That creates a mixed conditional, how a different past affects
an imaginary present. Try your own mixed conditionals or any conditionals that you
don't feel confident with in the comments. I'll try and correct you. And these are the grammar rules, right? Your teacher taught them.
I've just taught them to you. And if you change anything
of these in a test, you're a bad person and you fail at life. I'm kidding. I've got great news for you. The rules here are
flexible, very flexible. For example, now probably I'm never going to give you £1 million. But what if I did? A classic second conditional
sentence that you learned in your English class. If I gave you £1 million,
what would you do? We've got the obvious if
with a past tense verb, then word and an infinitive. That's fine and that is
what you should write in your English grammar tests. But, in real life situations,
in real English conversations, you might hear this. If you give me a million,
I'm buying a yacht. I've never understood the
fascination with yachts. I've never been on one.
I'm sure they're great. But anyway, surely this is wrong, right? I mean, if you give me a million. That's not likely,
that's not gonna happen, that's not real. But, why are you using first
conditional grammar here? Shouldn't it be second? Well yeah, in traditional grammar, yes. However, that's not
necessarily how we speak. Most importantly from this video, I want you to know that
traditional grammar rules are a guide, you know? They should help you
explain yourself better, tell a story with more
clear time references, and all that stuff,
and help you understand when people talk. Oh, you're talking about yesterday? Cool, I understood that because grammar. But, grammar is not a law. If anyone tells you that you're stupid or you've got bad English because you didn't stick to
the traditional grammar rules, but yet they still understood you, then you should make fun of their haircut. Make them cry. So if you say this, people
will understand you. No one will think that you're stupid or that your English is bad. This is fine. This is how we speak. You're fine. Don't worry. Because as another example. Aly, are you tired? You look tired. This is just my normal face. Well, you wouldn't look tired if you just slept early last night. Now, this is talking about last night, a different past. So, shouldn't this be past
perfect, if you had slept? And that one, that one's okay. You wouldn't look tired now. There's no problem with that. If you wrote this in an
exam, you would fail. But, in real conversations
people change the second and third conditional grammar, I don't know what I'm doing
with this, all the time. Yes, you're talking about
an imaginary past situation, and that should be past perfect. But if you just use past
simple, no one will care in real conversation. In an English grammar test,
people will absolutely care. You'll fail there. And this is the point I want
to make with this video. Prescriptive grammar is bad for students, great for tests, bad for
real life situations. In textbooks and tests, there's
only one correct answer. Anything else is a fail. But in real life, in real conversations, we bend the rules all the time. Please know that conversation
is way more important than tests. Unless you, you know,
need a Visa, uni entry, or what's the other thing, a job. Then, that one's more important. Okay, maybe I've been too general. You can't just break all the rules because the sentence needs to make sense and you need to understand each other. So, there are some rules
that we still follow. but don't worry because they're very easy. For example, she broke up with him. But, he wants to say, "To be honest, it was
going to end anyway." So, he says this. If you didn't break up with me, I would've broken up with you. A textbook would say this is wrong. Your test would say this is wrong. But in a real conversation, people speak like this all
the time and no one cares. That's the important thing. Basically, basically any
type of past sentence here with if and the would've with a verb three or past participle, everyone
knows you're talking about an imaginary past situation. That's fine. No one's gonna correct that. However, and the more
strict rule, would be this. The main two rules to follow with conditionals are make sure
the time reference is right and not confusing. So if you're talking
about a past situation, make sure you have a past sentence. So, not don't break, use
didn't break, or hadn't broken. Those two are acceptable in conversation. Like I said before, any past and past, we all understand that you're talking about something in the past. And secondly, breaking
the structure of rules. So, would broken, you know that a modal verb
needs an infinitive, verb one. So, when you put would
with a verb three, broken, that just sounds weird to the ear. So that one, yes, people
will correct you on that. But this one, probably no. And in the future, I want to
make more videos like this, you know, how English teaching
should be not how it is. I think that it's already so outdated and we need to change some of our methods. That's the future of English teaching. And you want to know something else that's the future of learning? It's today's sponsor, Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of inspiring
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from fellow creatives who provide encouragement, communication, and inspiration along the way. So, this is why, yeah, it's
good to learn the basics of traditional grammar,
because when you do then you know how to
break and bend those rules to explain things better
and more naturally. So, I want you to try playing around with conditional
sentences in the comments. I'll try to reply to as many as possible. And I'll see you in the next class. (light music)
