Real, unreal, always
Think of one thing you would genuinely do differently if one fact about your life were different. Not a fantasy — something plausible.
Hold it. First, a sorting task about what kind of if each sentence is.
Six sentences. Match each to what the speaker is actually claiming about reality.
Two answers to one question
Asked: what would you do if you did not have to work?
Duarte: I stop working. I travel. Maybe I study something. I don’t know. Is difficult to say.
The same question, same length of answer
Ivana: If I did not have to work, I would not stop immediately — I think I would carry on for about a year just to see whether I actually wanted to.
If it turned out I did not, I would probably teach. Not full time. If I taught two days a week I could still call myself a teacher, which matters to me more than I would like to admit.
And if none of that worked, I would be in trouble, because I have no idea who I am when nobody is expecting me anywhere.
Five questions comparing the two answers. Both are honest; only one answers the question that was asked.
1. Duarte answers in the present simple. What has he actually described?
2. Ivana uses did not have and would not stop. Which half carries the past form?
3. If I did not have to work… — is the speaker describing the past?
4. Ivana stacks three conditionals in three paragraphs. What does that let her do?
5. Duarte’s answer is shorter by ten words. What is the real difference?
Three shapes
The three conditionals of this unit
| Type | If-clause | Main clause | Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zero | if + present | present | Always true. If I don’t sleep, I’m useless. |
| First | if + present | will / might / can + verb | A real future possibility. If it rains, we’ll stay in. |
| Second | if + past | would / could / might + verb | Unreal now. If I had time, I’d learn the piano. |
if I were | Fixed form, all persons | would | If I were you, I’d ring them. Advice |
unless | = if … not | Either | Unless it rains, we’ll walk. |
Six lines of Ivana’s answer, out of order. Put them back so each hypothesis leads into the next.
- That matters to me more than I would like to admit.
- I think I would carry on for about a year just to see whether I actually wanted to.
- And if none of that worked, I would be in trouble.
- If I did not have to work, I would not stop immediately.
- If I taught two days a week I could still call myself a teacher.
- If it turned out I did not, I would probably teach.
Building the second
One to three words per gap. The if-clause takes a past form; the main clause takes would.
If I in a smaller town, I probably know my neighbours. If my brother here, we see each other more. And if I the money, I the flat upstairs, although I am not sure I would ever get round to it.
Six sentences from real answers to this question. One error each.
1. If I would have more time, I would learn the piano.
2. If I don’t have to work, I would travel.
3. If it will rain tomorrow, we stay in.
4. If I was you, I ring them today.
5. Unless it doesn’t rain, we will walk.
6. I would go, if I had the money.
Two minutes of what if
Task card · Speaking · Diagnostic · 2 minutes each
Your partner asks: what would you do if you did not have to work? Then: what would you do if you had to leave the country next month?
Two minutes on each. Follow the hypothesis into its consequences rather than listing options.
- Open by answering the question as asked, in the same shape it was asked in.
- Then take your own answer and ask and if that happened…?
- At least one if I were you or one piece of advice to yourself.
- Finish with the thing you would find hardest, not the thing you would enjoy.
Listener’s job. Two columns. Left: every if-clause you hear, written out. Right: the main clause that went with it.
Leave the right column blank whenever a condition arrived without a result. Those blanks are the diagnosis, and there will be more than you expect.
What two minutes produced
Five sentences of the kind this task produces. Fix each.
1. If I would live abroad, I would miss my family.
2. If I have to leave next month, I don’t know what I do.
3. If I was rich, I buy a house near the sea.
4. If I had the choice — well, anyway.
5. Unless I don’t find something by June, I will have to move.
A past that is not the past
Three questions.
1. If I had more time… — is this about the past?
2. Where can would never go?
3. Unless it rains means —
Before next lesson. Listen to one podcast episode or talk about how people imagine alternatives. Write down four conditional sentences the speaker uses, word for word.
Four exactly, and mark which half came first in each. That ordering is what we start with next lesson.