Conditional type one

🔊 La maîtresse lit pour toi

Paul is your age, and he does not know what is going to happen to him. So he writes: “If I pass my final year exam, I'll go to Lincoln Senior High School.” And a few lines later: “But if I fail to get my high school diploma, I'll start work full time, right away.” He has not decided anything — he has decided both. That is exactly what this structure is for: it lets you speak about a future you do not control. Two halves, two verbs — and the surprising part is that the half about the future is not the one in the future tense. Which tense goes where, and why?

🎓في نهاية هذا الدرس ستكون قادرا على:

بناء الشرط من النوع الأوّل : ⁦If + present simple , … will + base verb⁩
قلب شطري الجملة، ومعرفة متى تُكتب الفاصلة ومتى تُحذف
بناء النفي في الشطرين : ⁦If … don't … · … won't …⁩
التمييز بين ⁦if⁩ (قد يقع) و⁦when⁩ (سيقع حتما)
التعرّف على الوظائف الستّ للجملة الشرطيّة : التهديد، التحذير، التوقّع، الوعد، الاقتراح، العرض

🔑يفترض هذا الدرس أنّك تتقن:

المضارع البسيط، إثباتا ونفيا بـ⁦don't · doesn't⁩
المستقبل بـ⁦will⁩ و⁦won't⁩، والفعل بعدهما مجرّد
الفرق بين شطرَي الجملة المركّبة وموقع الفاصلة بينهما

Presentation

لاحظ نصّ بول أوّلا. أربع جمل فيه على البنية نفسها : ابحث عن زمن الفعل في كلّ شطر قبل أن تقرأ القاعدة.

Paul's expectations, written in his exercise book

If I pass my final year exam, I'll go to Lincoln Senior High School and study for four more years there. Then if I get my high school diploma, I'll work in a drive-in restaurant while going to night school. I'll take a marketing course. But if I fail to get my high school diploma, I'll start work full time, right away. Uncle James has already offered to take me as his assistant. I'll sell second-hand cars, just like him. And if I make enough money, I'll marry Jenny, my girl-friend, and start a family as soon as possible. I won't go to university anyway.

What does Paul's paragraph tell you before you read any rule?

ماذا يعلّمك نصّ بول قبل أن تقرأ القاعدة ؟

Four sentences, one shape: If + something happens, I'll + do something. Paul repeats it four times without changing it once.
Now look at the verb just after if: “pass, get, fail, make”. They are all in the present simple — and every one of them is about the future. Paul has not passed his exam yet.
And look at the other half: “I'll go, I'll work, I'll start, I'll marry”. Will, four times. So the sentence has two tenses, and only one of them is a future.
Paul writes the good branch and the bad one, and both sentences are equally true. ⟹ The if-sentence does not predict: it prepares.

⟹ The manual gives the two halves their names: the one that begins with if is the if-clause, and the other is the result clause. The whole lesson is about which tense belongs to which — and about the comma between them.

The conditional type one speaks about a future that is possible but not certain. If + subject + present simple , subject + will + base verb “If Paul makes enough money, he will marry Jenny.” The same sentence can start from the other end, and then there is no comma: Subject + will + base verb + if + subject + present simple “Becky will go to Grossmont College if she wins a scholarship.” ⛔ The one rule you must never break: after “if”, never “will”. The if-clause is in the present simple, even though the whole sentence talks about the future. ⭐ Both halves can be negative: “If I don't win a scholarship, I'll go to university anyway.” · “If I finish with high grades, I won't go to junior high.”

The two orders, and the four combinations

Order	Pattern	Example
if-clause first	If + subject + present , subject + will + base verb	If Paul makes enough money, he'll marry Jenny.
result clause first	subject + will + base verb + if + subject + present — no comma	Becky will go to Grossmont College if she wins a scholarship.
negative if-clause	If + subject + don't / doesn't + base verb, …	If I don't win a scholarship, I'll go to university anyway.
negative result clause	…, subject + won't + base verb	If I finish with high grades, I won't go to junior high.

The two halves never share a tense: present after if, will in the result. And the comma appears only when if opens the sentence.

The short forms you will hear and use

**What if …?** — asking about a difficulty: “What if it rains? · What if you break your leg?”the answer is a result clause alone — “I'll sleep under a tree.”**if not** ⟹ “If I don't win a scholarship…” · **and anyway** ⟹ “…I'll go to university **anyway**.”⚠️ **if** ≠ **when** — **If I pass** (it may happen) · “When I finish school” (it will certainly happen)

One form, six intentions

بنية واحدة، ستّ نوايا : طابق كلّ جملة بوظيفتها.

Match each sentence with what it really does

All six sentences below are conditionals of type one. Match each one with one function, and use each function only once. 1. If we don't go now, we'll miss the bus. 2. If you don't stop screaming, I'll spank you. 3. If you don't like it, we'll give you a new one. 4. Mum, I'll do the dishes if you want. 5. Be careful. You'll get an electric shock if you touch that wire. 6. She will understand if you explain why you did it, I'm sure. Functions: a. threat · b. warning · c. prediction · d. promise · e. suggestion · f. offer

The answers, and the rule behind them

الأجوبة، والقاعدة التي وراءها.

Sentence	Function	What gives it away
1. If we don't go now, we'll miss the bus.	suggestion	“we” — the speaker is in it too, so he is proposing, not ordering
2. If you don't stop screaming, I'll spank you.	threat	the speaker himself will cause the bad result
3. If you don't like it, we'll give you a new one.	promise	the speaker commits himself to something good
4. Mum, I'll do the dishes if you want.	offer	“if you want” — the other person decides
5. You'll get an electric shock if you touch that wire.	warning	the bad result comes from the world, not from the speaker
6. She will understand if you explain why you did it.	prediction	the speaker is not involved at all; he only foresees

Six intentions, and not one difference of grammar. Every sentence above is “if + present, will + base verb”. ⭐ Two questions separate four of them: is the result good or bad for the listener, and who makes it happen — the speaker, or the world? bad + caused by the speaker ⟹ threat · bad + caused by the world ⟹ warning good + promised by the speaker ⟹ promise · good + left to the listener's choice ⟹ offer The other two have their own sign: we ⟹ suggestion (the speaker is in it too) · a speaker who is not involved at all ⟹ prediction.

The same structure, in three more places you have met it

an advertisement — Buy two **and** you'll get one free. (= if you buy two, you will get one free)a piece of advice — **If** you tell people when the truck comes, they **will** stop putting their bags out on the wrong day.a report — **If** she works hard, she **will be able to** speak fluently.

⟹ Read the last one again. Once you own this structure you can say what will happen and what it depends on, in one sentence. That is why teachers, advertisers and examiners all use it: it is the shortest way in English to make a reason and a consequence hold hands.

⛔ Three mistakes to bury now. — not “If I will pass my exam, I'll go to high school.” After if, the present simple, always: “If I pass my exam…” — not “Becky will go to Grossmont College, if she wins a scholarship.” The comma belongs to the if-clause when it comes first, and nowhere else. — not “If I finish Middle School, I will go to high school” when you are certain of finishing. If means maybe; when means certainly. Choosing if where when is true makes you sound as though you doubt yourself.

⛔ ثلاثة أخطاء : ⛔ ⁦will⁩ بعد ⁦if⁩ · الفاصلة عند التصدير فقط · ⁦if⁩ للمحتمل و⁦when⁩ للمؤكّد.

Practice

تمارين. أنجزها على كرّاسك أوّلا، ثمّ افتح التصحيح.

Exercise 1 — Join a clause from column A with a clause from column B

Make three full sentences of the shape If … , … will … Column A — I pass my Brevet exam · I go to university · I become a writer Column B — I study literature · I be famous · I be admitted to Secondary School

Answers to Exercise 1

	Answer	What to check
a	If I pass my Brevet exam, I will be admitted to Secondary School.	present after if, will in the result, comma in the middle
b	If I go to university, I will study literature.	same shape; “go” stays in the present
c	If I become a writer, I will be famous.	the result can be a state, not only an action

Exercise 2 — Your brother does not want you to go camping

He points out one difficulty after another. Answer each one with a result clause beginning with I'll. Example — Your brother: What if you can't pitch the tent? — You: I'll sleep under a tree. a. What if it rains? b. What if a jackal attacks you? c. What if you break your leg? ⟹ Then rewrite your three answers as full conditional sentences, with the if-clause written out.

Answers to Exercise 2 — one possible set

I'll stay in the tent. ⟹ If it rains, I will stay in the tent.
I'll light a fire and make a noise. ⟹ If a jackal attacks me, I will light a fire and make a noise.
I'll call my brother on his mobile phone. ⟹ If I break my leg, I will call my brother on his mobile phone.

⭐ Look at what happened between the short answer and the full sentence in b: “a jackal attacks you” became “a jackal attacks me”. The question was asked to you; the sentence is said by you. ⟹ When you turn a What if…? into a full conditional, the pronouns change sides. That is the small step where most answers go wrong.

At the BEM, the conditional type one is one of the two or three most frequent questions of Mastery of language: “put the verbs in brackets in the correct form”, or “join the two sentences using if”. And in Written expression it is the structure of the subject you are most likely to get — “what will you do if you succeed in your Brevet exam?” Keep three things ready: present after if, will in the result ; a comma only when if opens the sentence ; and if for what may happen, when for what certainly will. ⛔ The mistake that costs marks every year: “If I will pass…”.

The conditional of type one is how English talks about a future it does not control: if + present simple on one side, will + base verb on the other, and never the two mixed. Turn the sentence round and only the comma moves. And once the form is yours, remember that it carries six different intentions — threat, warning, prediction, promise, suggestion, offer — decided not by the grammar but by two questions — is the result good or bad, and who is going to make it happen? — and, for a suggestion or a prediction, by we or by a speaker who only foresees.

Page 1/4