Master English Conditionals: Zero, First, Second, Third & Mixed

If it rains this weekend, what will you do? If you were an animal, what kind would you be? If you'd been born a hundred years ago, how would your life have been different? These are all examples of conditional sentences, which describe a situation and its possible result. Conditionals are some of the trickiest sentence structures in English, but today I'll make them clear. In this lesson, you'll learn the five main types of conditionals and exactly how they work. And don't miss the bonus download. It's a free PDF with 50 different conditional sentences so you can see many different examples of how to use them. Click on the link in the video description and enter your email address to get that free PDF sent to you right away. As I said, conditional sentences express a cause and effect relationship. If something happens, something else will happen. And different types of conditionals show whether the situation is real, possible, or imaginary. First, we have the zero conditional that talks about facts or things that are always true. If you heat water to 100° Celsius, it boils. That's a fact. Next, we have the first conditional for real future possibilities. If it rains this weekend, we'll stay home. The second conditional deals with unreal or imaginary possibilities in the present. If I were rich, I'd travel the world. The third conditional talks about unreal or imaginary situations in the past. If I had studied, I would have passed the test. And finally, we have mixed conditionals with a past condition and a present result. Or the opposite, a present condition and a past result. If I had gone to bed earlier last night, I wouldn't be so tired now. Let's learn how to form each type of conditional with some examples. Again, download the free lesson PDF for lots more. So, zero conditional. This one is used for facts, general truths or laws of nature. The structure is if plus the present simple and the present simple in the result. If you heat ice, it melts. If you mix red and blue, you get purple. If I eat too much, I feel sick. That's something that always happens. Next, we have the first conditional. This is used for real possible situations in the future. We form it by using if plus the present simple in the condition. We use the present simple even though we're actually talking about the future. And then the result we have will or won't. For example, if it rains this weekend, will stay home. If you study hard tomorrow, you won't fail the test on Friday. If we leave in a few minutes, we'll arrive by noon. By the way, you can also reverse the two parts of the sentence. So you can say, "We'll stay home if it rains this weekend." This is true for all the conditionals. The second conditional, this is used for imaginary, unlikely, or impossible situations in the present. So that's a question like, "If you were an animal right now, what kind of animal would you be?" That's clearly an impossible situation. For the structure, we use if plus the past simple in the condition. Again, even though we're talking about a present condition, we use if plus the past simple. And then in the result, we use would or wouldn't. For example, if I won the lottery, I'd move to Spain. I would move to Spain. If she lived closer, we'd see each other more often. If you were president, what would you change? Getting a little more complex, we have the third conditional. This is used for imaginary situations in the past, things that didn't happen, but we're imagining what would have happened. For the structure, we use if plus the past perfect in the condition, and then the result is would have or could have plus the past participle of the verb. So, let's look at some situations. This is what actually happened. What actually happened is they left late and missed the train. But now let's imagine it was different in the past. If they had left earlier, they would have caught the train. What actually happened? It rained and we stayed home. But let's imagine it differently. If it hadn't rained, we would have gone hiking. What actually happened is that you didn't ask, so I didn't help. But let's imagine it was different. If you had asked me, I would have helped you. Got it? Now, here's one that can be really confusing. It's mixed conditionals. These are used for situations that combine past and present time frames. There are two main types. One with the past condition and a present result, and one with the present condition, but a past result. So, here are a couple with a past condition and a present result. If I had gone to bed earlier last night, that's the past condition. I wouldn't be so tired now. I'm imagining what the present result would be. If I had saved more money in the past, I would be able to buy a new car. Now, as you can see, we use the past perfect for the past condition and then would and wouldn't for the present result. Now, let's look at the opposite situation. a present condition and a past result. So I am not an organized person. But let's imagine it differently. If I were more organized, I would have met the deadline. If I were a more organized person in general, I would have met that past deadline that I probably missed. I don't live in New York City. But let's imagine it differently in the present. If I lived in New York City, I would have gone to the event last month. Can you see how I'm imagining the present difference having an impact on what would have happened in the past? Conditionals can really make your head spin, but one of the best ways to master them is to see lots of examples and try to create your own conditionals of each type. The free lesson guide will definitely help you do that. So, make sure to download it from the video description. Here's one more conditional for you. If you want to master the details of English grammar, then you will definitely benefit from my advanced grammar course. We go indepth into all the grammar topics that you must know for fluent English and there are plenty of opportunities to practice and get feedback from our teaching team. I'll link to the advanced grammar course in the video description as well, and I'd love to see you inside. Thanks for joining me today, and I'll talk to you next time.