WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017

We started discussing the advantages and disadvantages of modern technology and took the technophile, technophobe quiz on 129 of FCE Result.

The quiz contains examples of conditional structures. In English we have 4 types of conditional from 0 to 3.

0 - always true in a condition situation or condition
When you heat water to 100 degrees, it boils
When I eat nuts, I am sick
if / when + present simple, present simple

Try the quiz here

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/0cond1.htm

1 - real possibilties or alternatives for the future

If the weather is good on Saturday, I will go to the sea

If + present simple, will + future

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/1cond1.htm

2 - imaginary or not very likely situation in the present or future

If I won a million euros, I would travel

If + past simple, would + base form of verb

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/2cond1.htm

3 - alternative for the past

If I had known you were sick, I would have visited you

If + had + past participle, would + have + past participle

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/3cond1.htm

In all cases it is possible to invert the order of the phrases, so start with the condition and then the consequence, or the consequence and then the condition

PHRASES SEPARATED BY COMMA        NO COMMA
When I eat nuts, I am sick                              I am sick if I eat nuts
If I won a million euros, I would travel          I would travel if I won a million euros
If I had known you were sick, I would have   I would have visited you if I had known you were sick
visited you  

In the 0, 1st, 2nd, 3rd conditionals, you can substitute will with may, might, can, and would with might, could or should to express different degrees of certainty.

will / would = 100% certain
can / could = 50 / 60%
may / might = 20/30% 

 Unreal conditionals (types II + III) sometimes can be mixed, that is, the time of the if clause is different from the one of the main clause.

Read more about conditionals on Page 174 of FCE Result. There are also exercises on Page 133.