Conditionals – Zero, First, Second and Third

If you could become fluent in any language, which language would you choose?
I hope you said English! If you didn’t, that is quite alright too.
Learning a new language takes time and effort but it’s well worth it.

It is particularly important to learn grammar that we use in everyday language.

You’ve probably heard of conditionals before. Well we are going to review them in this blog post.

We will talk about:

The Zero Conditional
The First conditional
The second conditional
The third conditional

The Zero Conditional is used to talk about results that are always true under certain conditions. Confused? Let’s look at some examples which will make it easy to understand.

The Zero Conditional is often used to talk about facts. For example, water boils at one hundred degrees Celsius. This is a fact. It is always true. We can express this idea with the zero conditional:

If you heat water to one hundred degrees Celsius, it boils.

We form the zero conditional like this:

If/When + present simple, present simple

Notice that we can use If or When in the zero conditional.

Let’s look at some more examples of scientific facts using the zero conditional:

If you multiply three by four, you get twelve.
When water droplets in clouds get too heavy, it rains.
If you heat ice, it melts.
When glaciers melt, the water level rises.

We also use the zero conditional to talk about things that are always true in our daily lives.

For example, maybe you get headaches sometimes and every time you get a headache you take some paracetamol. Using the zero conditional you could say:

When I get a headache, I take some paracetamol.

Here are some more examples:

When we’re tired, we go to bed.
If I’m hungry, I get irritable.
When she calls me, I feel happy.

We can also use the zero conditional to give instructions. Here are some examples:

If you have any questions, just ask me.
When the guests arrive, offer them a drink.
If the program crashes, switch off the computer.

The First Conditional is about future possibilities, things that may or may not happen in the Future depending on a certain circumstance or condition.

Supposing your friend asks you to play football tomorrow and you really want to play but can only go depending on work, you might say:

If I have no work tomorrow, I’ll play football.

This suggests that you won’t play football if you need to work.

Look at some more possible examples:

If you give me a lift, I will go to your party .( Going to the party depends on a lift)

If you buy her dinner, she will help you. ( Her help  is conditional on you paying for the dinner)

We form the first conditional like this: If +present simple, will/won’t  + infinitive

We can also put the if clause  after the will clause : will + infinitive + if + present simple

We will pass the test if we study.(Passing the test is conditional on studying)

Note: If we put ‘if’ at the beginning of the sentence, we need to use a comma after the ‘if’ clause.

We use the Second Conditional for imaginary or hypothetical situations that could be now or in the future.

We often think and talk about what we would do if we had a million euro:

If I were a millionaire, I would buy a big house.

The present reality is that I am not a millionaire, and so I cannot buy a big house. I am just dreaming.

Take a look at some more examples:

If she won the lottery, she would buy a Ferrari.

If I was British, I could speak English fluently.

If I were on holidays, I would be on a beach.

To form the second conditional we use : If + past simple + would do/infinitive

We use the Third Conditional to talk about imaginary situations in the past. In other words, things that didn’t happen in the past but could have happened if the situation was different.

If I didn’t get much sleep because I went to bed late, I can say:

If I had gone to bed earlier last night, I would have slept more.

The third conditional expresses how things could have been.

Check out some more examples:

If I had studied harder, I would have passed the test.

If he hadn’t called the doctor, he would not have got the medicine.

If they had saved some money, they would have bought a house.

To make the third conditional we use: If + past perfect + would/wouldn’t have + past participle