Your four, ordered
Read out your four conditionals. For each, say whether the if came first or second, and whether there was a pause in the middle.
The pause is the comma. It only exists in one of the two orderings.
Eight ways of opening a hypothetical. Match each to what it signals.
Four people, four hypotheses
Four answers to: what one thing about your city would you change?
Nils: If they pedestrianised the centre, half the shops would close within a year. That is not an argument against doing it — it is an argument for doing it slowly. I would rather lose twenty shops over ten years than have the street we have now for another twenty.
Renata: I would make the buses free if I could do only one thing. Not cheaper — free. Every time somebody proposes it, the objection is cost, and every time the objection is answered, they move on to a different objection, which tells you the cost was never the real reason.
Kofi: Say you had to choose between more housing and more green space. Everybody says both. If you actually had to choose, and you were honest, most people in this city would choose housing, and then complain about the green space in about fifteen years.
Wren: Unless something changes about the rents, none of the rest of it matters. You can pedestrianise whatever you like. If the people who work in the centre cannot live within an hour of it, you have not improved the city, you have improved the photographs of it.
Seven statements. Decide which speaker each is true of. A speaker may be the answer more than once.
A Nils
B Renata
C Kofi
D Wren
1. Accepts a consequence they dislike and argues for the change anyway.
2. Argues that an objection is not the real objection.
3. Puts the main clause before the if-clause.
4. Invites the listener into the hypothesis before making a claim.
5. Predicts that people will contradict their own earlier choice.
6. Uses a condition to say that every other proposal is beside the point.
7. Distinguishes between improving a thing and improving how it looks.
Say these aloud and listen to the ending. The if-clause rises. The main clause falls.
If they pedestrianised the centre ↗ , half the shops would close ↘
If you let your voice fall at the end of the if-clause, the listener hears a finished sentence and starts talking. That is how a condition gets orphaned — not by forgetting the main clause, but by signalling that there is not going to be one.
And the contractions: I’d /aɪd/ · they’d /ðeɪd/ · we’d /wiːd/. Uncontracted would in the main clause sounds emphatic, as though you were contradicting somebody.
The two orderings
Which half first, and what it does
| Ordering | Punctuation | Emphasises | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| If first | Comma after the if-clause | The condition — the thing that would have to be true | If they pedestrianised the centre, half the shops would close. |
| Main clause first | No comma | The result — what you actually want to say | Half the shops would close if they pedestrianised the centre. |
| Unless first | Comma | The condition, negatively | Unless something changes, none of it matters. |
| Unless second | No comma | The result | None of it matters unless something changes. |
Both orderings are correct. They are not interchangeable.
Put the if-clause first when the condition is the news — when you are introducing a hypothesis nobody has considered yet.
Put the main clause first when the result is the news, and the condition is something everybody already accepts. Renata does this: the interesting part is free buses, not if I could do only one thing.
Four sentences have been removed. Put each back where the argument needs it.
People talk about the rents as though they were weather. [1] They are the result of about six decisions, all of which were taken by somebody, and most of which could be taken differently.
If the council bought back even a tenth of the stock it sold in the nineties, the effect on the market would be small. [2] It would tell every landlord in the city that there is a floor.
[3] Nobody who proposes it seriously expects it to pass. But if a proposal is never made, it can never become the obvious thing that everybody agreed with all along.
Unless somebody is willing to look ridiculous for about five years, nothing moves. [4]
Reordering, and the comma
One to four words per gap. Some sentences lead with the condition and some with the result.
If the line in 2032, the east side changes completely. Nothing much happen to the west side unless they extend it. And if they extend it, the whole argument starts again in about six years. I rather they did the east side properly than both badly, if I honest.
Seven sentences. Some have the comma in the wrong place; one is correct.
1. I would move, if the rent went up again.
2. If the rent went up again I would move.
3. None of it matters, unless the rents change.
4. Unless the rents change none of it matters.
5. If they would build more housing, the prices would fall.
6. If it rains tomorrow, we will stay in.
7. I don’t know what I would do, if that happened.
Say it both ways
Task card · Speaking · Pairs · 5 minutes each
Your partner names a change to your city or town. You argue for or against it, and you must use both orderings.
Eight conditionals in five minutes, alternating between the two orderings.
- Odd-numbered ones lead with the condition. Even-numbered ones lead with the result.
- At least one unless, in each ordering.
- Your voice must rise at the end of every if-clause. Your partner will tell you if it does not.
- At least one hypothesis-framing opener: say you had to… · imagine for a second… · supposing…
Listener’s job. Two things only: mark O beside every orphaned condition — an if-clause with no result — and tick every time the intonation rose where it should.
The two are related. Almost every orphan is preceded by a falling voice.
From the arguments
Five sentences from the task. Fix each.
1. If they would close the road, everybody would use the bridge.
2. Prices would fall, if they built more.
3. Unless they don’t act now, it will be too late.
4. If I had to choose between the two —
5. If the buses were free everybody would use them.
One comma rule
Two questions.
1. Where does the comma go?
2. Your voice falls at the end of an if-clause. What does the listener think?
Before next lesson. Write six conditionals about your own life: two zero, two first, two second. Mark the ordering of each.
Next lesson we build all three properly, and find out which one you avoid.