It's no secret that people depend on different conditions, because we often face different conditions. Although it has long been known that history does not tolerate the subjunctive mood, in everyday life we all often argue about what could happen if ... The British are no strangers to such dreams, but they, with their meticulousness they made several constructions from one subjunctive mood, each of which is used in strictly defined situations. Today we will study possible conditional sentences in English, consider their structure and usage. The material is very extensive and requires consolidation of theory, so be prepared for practical training.
Linguists have different approaches to inflection. English verbs . Traditionally, there are three of them: indicative, imperative and subjunctive. But some scholars distinguish the conditional mood in English as a separate form , and not part of the subjunctive category. This is due to the complexity of the whole subjunctive part, especially since there are 4 types of correct constructions in one conditional series, in addition to which there are also mixed phrases, and in addition, inversion can be used in most of them. Today we will learn conditional sentences in English. But first, let's define what a conditional sentence is.
Conditionals call for a variety of complex subordinating structures that contain two simple bases that are interconnected by a conditional-interrogative relation. The preposition expresses the result or result of the events, and the adverb is the condition for their attainment. Communication in sentences is carried out with the help of unions if , if , in case , as far as , provided , on the case . The first of them is used more often, so even the second name of these expressions appeared - sentences if . Consider possible design options and develop them with the help of an exercise.
Types of situations
As mentioned above, there are four types of regular constructions in conditional sentences. We will talk about them in this section.
Unconditional (zero conditional)
These statements use something called the null condition type. In other words, practical real facts and patterns developed on the basis of experience or known to everyone are given in the subordinate clause under the guise of a condition. Thus, the degree of conditionality of such an expression is practically zero.
The construction here usually uses the simple present, but occasionally there are constructions with Present Continuous / Perfect and Past Simple. Conditionals are introduced by conjunctions and can appear anywhere in the sentence, but only subordinate clauses before the main clause are separated by commas. This rule applies to all types of adverbs.
When he goes shopping for clothes, he goes to buy clothes if he has money .
English allows such constructions to be used to express directions. In this case, the main part has an imperative form.
If you want to be thin , do n't eat bun If you want to be thin, don't eat bun.
Note that this is the only type of conditional statement that cannot be changed.
Executable (First Conditional)
If the statement is about the possible performance of actions, then in English it is necessary to use conditional sentences of the first type. Often it is a prediction of future events or an expression of intentions and promises to do something in the near future. And here we meet an important law.
- You cannot believe the impossible! "You don't have much experience," said the queen. "When I was your age, I spent half an hour every day!" Other days I managed to believe dozens of impossible things before breakfast! Lewis Carroll "Alice in Wonderland" Admit that you like to daydream from time to time. How many times have you said the phrase "If I ..." or "I ..." And, of course, at least a few times in your life, you gave advice to someone by saying the following words: "If I were in your place, I would ..."
In our native language, we naturally fantasize, give valuable advice, sometimes weep over a missed opportunity or, on the contrary, regret what we have done. Grammatical structures do not seem complicated at all to us, and we use them without even thinking about the rules. English has second and third types of conditional sentences for these situations. It will be interesting and useful to learn more about them.