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Conditional tenses – Conditional tenses are used to speculate about what could happen, what might have happened, and what we wish would happen.
most of sentences using the conditional contain the word if. Many conditional forms in English are used in sentences that include verbs in one of the past tenses. This usage is referred to as “the unreal past” because we use a past tense but we are not actually referring to something that happened in the past.
There are five main ways of constructing conditional sentences in English. In all cases, these sentences are made up of an if clause and a main clause. In many negative conditional sentences, there is an equivalent sentence construction using “unless” instead of “if”.
Conditional clause and main clause.
Ex – If I have enough money, I will go to Japan.
conditional clause main clause
Ex – I will go to Japan, if I have enough money
main clause conditional clause
First, Second, and Third Conditional
1. First conditional: If I have enough money, I will go to Japan.
2. Second conditional: If I had enough money, I would go to Japan.
3. Third conditional: If I had had enough money, I would have gone to Japan.
Types of conditional sentences
1. Usages – General truth
If clause verb tense – Simple present
Main clause verb tense – Simple present
2. Usages – A possible condition and its probable result.
If clause verb tense – Simple present
Main clause verb tense – Simple future
3. Usages – A hypothetical condition and its probable result
If clause verb tense – Simple past
Main clause verb tense – Present conditional or Present continuous conditional
4. Usages – An unreal past condition and its probable result in the past
If clause verb tense – Past perfect
Main clause verb tense – Perfect conditional
5. Usages – An unreal past condition and its probable result in the present
If clause verb tense – Past perfect
Main clause verb tense – Present conditional