Sequencers

🔊 The teacher reads for you

Here are five instructions from the same recipe, printed in the wrong order: “Heat the pan.” · “Serve with a little sugar and lemon juice.” · “Mix the flour and the eggs with a fork.” · “Toss the cake once.” · “Pour in two tablespoonfuls of the mixture.” You can almost certainly put them back in the right order — but notice why you can: because you already know what a pancake is. Now imagine the same five lines for a dish you have never made in your life. The order becomes invisible. So which words does English put in front of a step, so that a reader who knows nothing can still follow you?

🎓في نهاية هذا الدرس ستكون قادرا على:

ترتيب خطوات إجراء بروابط الترتيب : ⁦First · Then · Next · After that · Finally⁩
كتابة وصفة أو سلسلة تعليمات يفهمها من لا يعرف الموضوع
استعمال روابط الزمن : ⁦when · until · as soon as · while · before · after⁩
تطبيق قاعدة المنع : لا ⁦will⁩ بعد رابط الزمن، بل المضارع البسيط
التمييز بين رابط الترتيب الذي يفتتح خطوة ورابط الزمن الذي يربط جملتين

🔑يفترض هذا الدرس أنّك تتقن:

صيغة الأمر : الفعل مجرّدا بلا فاعل
المضارع البسيط والمستقبل بـ⁦will⁩
الفاصلة بين شطرَي الجملة المركّبة

Presentation

لاحظ الوصفة أوّلا : تسع تعليمات مبعثرة. رتّبها في كرّاسك قبل أن تفتح الجواب.

A recipe whose instructions are not in the right order

Ingredients: 4 eggs · 200 grams of sifted flour · 2 pinches of salt · 400 ml of milk with 150 ml of water · 80 grams of butter or one tablespoonful of oil · a little cooking oil for frying · to serve: some sugar and one lemon. Instructions, in the wrong order: a. Slowly mix in the milk and water. b. Mix the flour and the eggs with a fork. c. Heat the pan. d. Put a little oil in the pan. e. Cook for about 45 seconds. f. Toss the cake once. g. Serve with a little sugar and lemon juice. h. Cook for another 45 seconds. i. Pour in two tablespoonfuls of the mixture. ⟹ Write the nine letters in the right order. The first one is b.

The right order — and what you used to find it

الترتيب الصحيح، وما الذي استعنت به لتجده ؟

b · a · d · c · i · e · f · h · g Written out: “Mix the flour and the eggs with a fork. Slowly mix in the milk and water. Put a little oil in the pan. Heat the pan. Pour in two tablespoonfuls of the mixture. Cook for about 45 seconds. Toss the cake once. Cook for another 45 seconds. Serve with a little sugar and lemon juice.”

You did not find that order in the words: there is not a single ordering word in the nine instructions. You found it in the world — you cannot pour a mixture you have not mixed.
Two steps were nearly impossible to separate: d (put oil in the pan) and c (heat the pan). Either order works in real life, and nothing in the text decides.
And two steps are the same sentence twice: “Cook for about 45 seconds” and “Cook for another 45 seconds”. Only the word another tells you which comes second.
⟹ A reader who does not already know the recipe would have stopped at step three. The nine facts are all there, and the procedure is not.

Now read the same recipe as its author actually wrote it: “First mix the sifted flour and the eggs with a fork, and slowly mix in the milk and the oil. Then, put a little oil in the pan. Next heat the pan. After that, pour in two tablespoonfuls of the mixture and cook for 45 seconds. Finally, toss the pancake once and cook for another 45 seconds.” ⟹ Five sequencers have been added (six words: After that counts two), the nine actions have been grouped into five steps — and the recipe has become usable.

A sequencer is a word that indicates the order in which the various steps of a procedure are carried out. It stands at the front of its step, it is usually followed by a comma (after a short one — First, Then, Next — the comma may be left out, as in the examples below), and it adds no information — it only makes the order visible. First — the first step · Then · Next · After that — each new step · Finally — the last one. ⭐ And it works with the imperative, which is the tense of every procedure: “First mix the flour. Then put a little oil in the pan.” One sequencer, one bare verb, one step. ⛔ Do not put a sequencer in front of every sentence. Mark the steps, not the lines: five sequencers are enough for a whole recipe.

Where each sequencer belongs

Position in the procedure	The sequencer	Example
The first step	First · To begin with · Start by …	First, mix the flour and the eggs with a fork.
A new step	Then · Next · After that	Next, heat the pan. After that, pour in two tablespoonfuls.
A step that must wait	a time conjunction, not a sequencer: When … · As soon as … · Until …	When the pan is hot, pour in the mixture.
The last step	Finally · In the end · To finish	Finally, serve with a little sugar and lemon juice.

A sequencer opens a step, usually with a comma. It never carries information of its own: remove it and every fact is still there, but the order is gone.

Two families, and do not confuse them

**sequencers** — First · Then · Next · After that · Finally. They open a **step** and stand alone.**time conjunctions** — when · until · as soon as · while · before · after. They join **two clauses** and need a subject and a verb behind them.⟹ “**Next**, heat the pan.” but “**When** the pan **is** hot, pour in the mixture.”

The steps that have to wait: time conjunctions

خطوات تنتظر غيرها : روابط الزمن، وقاعدة المنع التي تحكمها.

Look at these four sentences, then answer the question under them

1. What will you do when school finishes? 2. I'll stay with them until the first week of July is over. 3. I'll get up and dress as quickly as possible as soon as I hear him driving into the garage. 4. I'll do some motorbiking while I'm there. ⟹ Each sentence has two verbs. Underline them both. All four sentences speak about the future — so why is only one of the two verbs in the future?

The answer, and the rule behind it

الجواب، والقاعدة التي وراءه.

In every sentence, the verb that follows the time conjunction is in the present simple: “finishes, is, hear, am”. The other verb, in the main clause, takes will. And yet nothing here is present: school has not finished, July is not over, nobody has arrived. Both verbs are about the future — only one of them is allowed to say so.

⛔ After a time conjunction, never “will”. This applies to all of them: when · until · as soon as · while · before · after. “I'll stay until the first week of July is over.” — never will be over. “What will you do when school finishes?” — never “when school will finish”. ⭐ It is exactly the rule you already know from if: “If I pass my exam, I will go to high school.” ⟹ Time conjunctions and if obey the same law — the future is carried once, and only by the main clause.

The six time conjunctions, and what each one measures

**when** — at that moment: “When school finishes, I'll travel.”**as soon as** — immediately after: “As soon as I hear him, I'll get up.”**until** — up to that moment and no further: “I'll stay until July is over.”**while** — during the whole time: “I'll do some motorbiking while I'm there.”**before · after** — one step on each side: “Wash the salad **before** you cut it.”

⚠️ Here is a sentence to repair, and it is the classic one: “When the holidays will finish, we'll come back to school.” ⟹ When the holidays finish, we'll come back to school. One word removed, and the sentence is right. That single word is the difference between a mark and no mark.

⛔ Three mistakes to bury now. — not “When the holidays will finish…”, not “as soon as I will arrive…”. After when, until, as soon as, while, before and after, the verb is in the present simple. — not “When, heat the pan.” A time conjunction cannot stand alone: it needs a subject and a verb. If you only want to mark a step, use a sequencer: “Then, heat the pan.” — not a sequencer at the top of every line. “First… Then… Then… Then… Then… Finally” is worse than no sequencer at all: the reader stops seeing them. Group your actions into four or five steps, and mark only those.

⛔ ثلاثة أخطاء : لا ⁦will⁩ بعد رابط الزمن · رابط الترتيب يقف وحده ورابط الزمن يحتاج جملة · لا تضع رابطا أمام كلّ سطر.

Practice

تمارين. أنجزها على كرّاسك أوّلا، ثمّ افتح التصحيح.

Exercise 1 — Write the instructions for an omelette

Here is everything you have: eggs · cheese · cooking oil · herbs · salt, and a frying-pan. Write one coherent paragraph telling a guest how to make an omelette. Use the imperative and sequencers, and open with a tag question as the pancake letter did (“You will make an omelette, won't you?”). ⟹ Four or five steps, not nine. Group the small actions together.

Answers to Exercise 1 — one possible paragraph

Step	What you write	What to check
Opening	You will make an omelette, won't you? It's very easy.	a tag question, exactly as in the pancake letter
1	First, break the eggs into a bowl and beat them with a fork.	First + bare verb + comma after First
2	Then, add the salt and the herbs, and mix again.	two small actions grouped into one step
3	Next, put a little oil in the pan and heat it.	Next, not “After that” — keep the words varied
4	After that, pour in the eggs and cook for two minutes.	the longest step; the imperative is still bare
5	Finally, add the cheese, fold the omelette and serve it hot.	Finally closes the procedure; three actions, one step

⭐ Nine actions became five steps. That is the real work of a sequencer: not to label every verb, but to group the verbs into steps a reader can hold in his head. Five is about the limit — beyond that, the reader has to go back to the beginning.

Exercise 2 — Finish each sentence about yourself, and watch the tense

a. I won't stop working until I … b. When I finish my studies in Middle School, I … c. As soon as the bell rings, we … d. I … while waiting for the film to start. e. I'll buy my books before I … ⛔ In every sentence, one clause takes will and the other takes the present simple. Find which is which before you write.

Answers to Exercise 2 — one possible set

I won't stop working until I finish this exercise.
When I finish my studies in Middle School, I will go to a secondary school.
As soon as the bell rings, we will leave the classroom.
I will read the programme while I am waiting for the film to start.
I'll buy my books before I go back to school in September.

⭐ Read the five answers looking only at the verbs. Every single time, the verb next to the time conjunction is in the present and the other one carries will — and every single sentence is about the future. ⟹ Learn the shape, not the sentences: conjunction + present … will + base verb. It is the same shape as the conditional with if, and knowing that saves you learning it twice.

At the BEM, sequencers earn marks twice. In Written expression, every subject that asks for a recipe, a set of instructions, a procedure or a plan is corrected on them — a paragraph without sequencers reads as a list and loses the coherence marks. In Mastery of language, the time conjunctions come back as “put the verbs in brackets in the correct tense”. Keep three things ready: First, Then, Next, After that, Finally, each with a comma ; ⛔ no will after when, until, as soon as, while, before, after ; and four or five steps, never nine. ⛔ The mistake examiners see every year: “When the holidays will finish…”.

A procedure is not a list of correct actions: it is correct actions whose order the reader can see. Sequencers — First, Then, Next, After that, Finally — open a step, usually with a comma, and carry no information at all; their only job is to group nine actions into five steps. Time conjunctions — when, until, as soon as, while, before, after — do something else: they join two clauses, and they obey one absolute rule that the examiners never forget to test. After them, the verb stays in the present simple, however far in the future it is.

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