English sentence structure is the organization of words into grammatical units that make up sentences. Sentences can be complex or simple, and they can be long or short. A good structure is what makes a sentence readable and understandable. During the IELTS writing test, sentence structure will be one of the major measurements and also help to determine how complicated the sentence will be. The more words in a sentence, the more complicated it can be.
Sentence structures are analyzed by looking at:
-The number of clauses (groups of words with a subject and verb)
-The number of phrases (groups of words without a subject or verb)
-The types of phrases (nouns, verbs, adjectives)
In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to use conditional sentences in English.
What is conditional sentence?
The conditional sentence is a type of sentence that talks about the conditions of something happening.
It can be used to talk about the different ways that something could happen. They can also be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
Let’s take a look at the below examples, they all have the same meaning:
-If you clean your room, it will look tidy and fantastic.
-If you don’t clean your room, it will look messy and terrible.
-If you had cleaned your room, it would have looked tidy and fantastic.
Conditional sentences can be used to express something that is dependent on another thing too.
Let’s take a look at the below examples:
-I will help you if you help me.
-I will give you the money if you give me the money.
-If I had more time, I would have helped them.
First conditional sentence examples (Type 1):
The first conditional sentence is used to express a hypothetical situation, which is, they are used to express the possibility of an unreal condition. The sentence is used when you imagine that something might happen in the future. It is also called the “conditional type 1”, which is the most common type of conditional sentence.
The following are a few examples of first conditional sentences:
1. If you are hungry, I will cook for you.
2. If he likes me, he will call me back soon.
3. If he takes the bus, he will arrive at work on time.
4. If it rains tomorrow, we can stay at home and watch movies all day long.
5. If she goes to bed early tonight, she will feel better in the morning
6. If you give me 10 dollars, I will buy you a drink.
7. If I had more time, I would do more exercise.
Second conditional sentence examples (Type 2):
The second conditional is often called “conditional type 2” because it has a different meaning from the first conditional. In the first conditional, we are talking about a real situation that will happen in the future, but with the second conditional we are talking about a hypothetical situation that might happen. More precisely, it is used to talk about what would happen in a situation or event that is not certain. That’s why it’s called the ‘conditional’ because it describes something that is possible, but not definite.
Note that the second conditional has two clauses – an ‘if’ clause and the main clause. The ‘if’ clause usually starts with the word ‘when’. It describes a hypothetical situation or event which may happen in the future. The main clause describes what would happen if this hypothetical situation or event were to occur. We use “would” and “should” when we talk about a possible past situation that did not happen:
-If I had studied harder for my test, I would have passed.
-If I had more time, I would spend it with you.
The following are a few examples of second conditional sentences:
1) When I grow up, I want to be an astronaut!
2) If you give me your phone number, I’ll give you mine too!
3) If I were you, I would leave him alone.
4) If I had more free time, I could study in this master’s program.
5.) If I won a million dollars, I would go traveling around the world.
Third conditional sentence examples (Type 3):
The third conditional sentence is used to talk about unreal situations in the past. They are used to talking about what would have happened if something had happened that didn’t happen. The sentences are formed with would, could, or might be followed by a verb in the past tense. Let’s take a look at the below example:
If I had won the lottery, I would have bought a castle.
If I had known it was going to rain, I would have brought my raincoat with me.
If we had not been so tired, we would have gone hiking.
If she hadn’t been so stubborn, she wouldn’t be in this mess now.
If you had taken your medicine as prescribed, you wouldn’t be in hospital now.
If Ollie was taller, he might be able to reach the orange on that tree.
If Susan could speak Japanese fluently, she might get that dream job she’s been applying for.
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