Table: conditional sentences

In English, as in Russian, there are proposals that express condition:

If I had a big garden, I would grow a lot of flowers. — If I had a big garden, I grow a lot of flowers to.

Conditional sentences (conditional sentences) can express the actual (real) and unreal (unreal) condition. This table shows the correlation of forms of the predicate in the main and subordinate clauses.

↓ Download the table of English conditional sentences

Condition (condition)		Subordinate clause (clause offers small-f)	Principal clause (main offers small-f)	Translation (translation)
Real	Present / Future (Type 0)	Present Simple	Present Simple	without TO
		If (when) you heat water,	it boils.
		If people need money,	they borrow it from banks.
	Present / Future (Type 1)	Present Simple / Cont.	will + Infinitive
		If it looks like rain,	we ‘ll stay at home.
		If I have more time,	I ‘ll come over.
		If he is working on Friday,	he will not be able to go with us.
Unreal	Present / Future (Type 2)	Past Simple / Cont.	would / could / might + Infinitive	TO
		If I were you,	I would go there myself.
		If I had more time,	I would come over.
		If you knew him better,	you would not think so.
		If it were not raining,	I could go out.
	Past (Type 3)	Past Perfect	would / could / have + Participle II
		If you had gone there,	you would have seen him.
		If it had not been so hot last summer,	we could have gone to the South.

↓ Download the table of English conditional sentences

• Type 0 — type of conditional sentences, which describe events, phenomena, things are true, the fact (Scientific, a well-known). They are real.
• Type 1 — the type of conditional sentences, which describe events of the future time, they are real and possible.
• Type 2 — type of conditional sentences, which describes the events relevant to the present or the future, but they are not real.
• Type 3 — the type of conditional sentences in which the events are past tense, they could happen, but did not occur.

A detailed description of each type of conditional sentences given in the article «Conditional sentences in the English language.»

What else you need to know about conditional sentences?

1. The conditional sentences often used union if. But it is also found in case, provided, unless, suppose. In case, provided there are mainly sentences with the wild:
   

   In case I do not find her at home, I’ll leave her a note. — If I should not find it at home, I’ll leave her a note.

   We’ll finish the work on time provided you send all the necessary materials. — We will finish the work on time, provided that you send all the necessary materials.

   Unless a negative value:

   I’ll come in time unless I am detained at work. — I will come in time, if I did not hold up at work.

   Suppose a characteristic of the proposals with unrealistic conditions:

   Suppose she wrote to you, what would you answer? — Suppose you write it, what would you answer?

2. There are two types of mixed sentences expressing unreal condition:
   • condition refers to the past (Type 3), as a consequence to date (Type 2):
     

     If you had taken your medicine yesterday, you would be well today. — If you have taken this medicine yesterday, now you would be healthy.

   • the condition is not related to a specific time (Type 2), and consequently belongs to the past (Type 3):
     

     If he were not so absent-minded, he would not have missed the train yesterday. — If he had not been so distracted, he would not have missed the train last night.

3. Unreal condition can also be expressed as follows (but for + noun / pronoun):
   

   But for the rain, we would go down to the country. — If not for the rain, we would go out of town.

4. Offers from unrealistic conditions contained had, were, could, should, without unions are often used, but in this case entered inversion, ie changing the order of words:
   

   Had I time, I would study Spanish. — If I had time, I would have started to teach Spanish.

Therefore, conditional sentences were not really complicated grammar material. The main thing — the right to relate the verbal forms in the main and subordinate clauses.

If you think you have learned that the subject, then try your hand, answering the test questions «test on the use of conditional sentences in the English language.»

 

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Grammar