Count the orphans
Both listeners’ pages. Count the orphans on each and note where in the chain each one fell — first link, second, third, fourth.
Write the four numbers on the board as a class. The shape is the same for almost everybody.
Six pairs. Match each correct sentence to the version usually produced in a chain.
Two minutes of a real chain
Transcribed exactly, errors and all
If they made the buses free, more people would use them. That is obvious.
And if more people used them, the council will need more drivers, because the ones they have are already at the limit.
If they would hire more drivers, the cost goes up, and then somebody at the council says we cannot afford it, and unless they don’t plan for that from the start —
Anyway. I think it is worth doing.
Four questions about the chain. The first link is perfect.
1. Where is the first error?
2. The third link has two errors. What are they?
3. The third link never finishes. What is that called?
4. The errors get worse as the chain goes on. Why?
Six families, and why they cluster late
An honest finding. Ask this class to write ten conditionals and almost all of them will be correct. Ask the same class to follow one hypothesis four steps out loud and the third and fourth links fall apart.
That is not a gap in knowledge. A conditional is a two-clause structure, and in a chain you have to build a new one while holding the output of the last one in your head. The load compounds; the grammar is the first thing it takes.
The practical consequence: decide the type before you start the chain and say it to yourself. If the chain is second conditional, every link is second conditional. That one decision removes half the errors before they happen.
The six families, and what fixes each
| Family | Looks like | The fix |
|---|---|---|
would in the if-clause | The if-clause carries no modal. Past form only | |
| Type change mid-chain | Choose the type once, before the chain starts | |
| Orphan | Rise at the end of the if-clause, and finish the sentence | |
| Comma in the wrong ordering | Comma only when the if-clause comes first | |
| Double negative | Unless already means if not | |
if for a precaution | in case — take it before you know |
The chain from the input, repaired and kept in one type throughout. One to four words per gap.
If they made the buses free, more people use them. And if more people used them, the council need more drivers, because the ones they have are already at the limit. If they more drivers, the cost go up, and somebody at the council would say we could not afford it. they planned for that from the start, the whole thing collapse in about eighteen months.
Eight sentences, at least one from each family. Fix each and name the family.
1. If they would build more, prices would fall.
2. If prices fell, more people will move here.
3. I would stay, if the rent stayed the same.
4. If the rent stayed the same I would stay.
5. Unless they don’t change it, nothing improves.
6. Bring a coat if it gets cold later. — meaning: as a precaution
7. Even if they would fund it, it would be late.
8. If I were you, I would say nothing.
Holding a chain together
Ten sentences from four-minute turns. Eight need work; two are correct.
1. If the factory would close, four hundred people would lose their jobs.
2. If they lost their jobs, most of them would leave.
3. If most of them left, the school will shrink.
4. The council would merge it, if the school shrank.
5. Unless the council doesn’t plan for it, it happens anyway.
6. Even if it would take ten years, I would still argue for it.
7. Take the paperwork in case they ask for it.
8. If they close it next year — well, we will see.
9. As long as they will fund the retraining, it is survivable.
10. If the school shrank the council would look at merging it.
Four sentences have been removed. Put each back where the chain needs it.
If the hospital moved to the ring road, the journey from the north of the county would drop by about twenty minutes. [1]
It would also add about forty minutes for everybody in the two boroughs nearest the current site, who are, on average, the poorest and the oldest people it serves. [2]
[3] What that misses is that ambulances are not the problem — the problem is outpatients, three times a week, on a bus.
As long as the bus route moves with the hospital, most of the objection goes away. [4]
One to four words per gap. Decide the type before you start and keep it.
If the council sold the car park, it raise about four million. If it four million, it could clear the repairs backlog on the schools. If the backlog cleared, the buildings need the emergency work that eats the maintenance budget every February. the money went straight into a general fund, none of that would happen. the sale is tied to the schools, it is worth doing.
Declare the type first
Task card · Speaking · Pairs · 5 minutes each
Your partner gives you a hypothesis. Before you start, you say out loud which conditional type the whole chain will be in.
Four chains each, four links deep, with the type declared and held.
- Say the type first: second conditional. Then start.
- Your partner counts the links and raises a hand the moment the type changes.
- If the hand goes up, you restart that link.
- Your voice rises at the end of every if-clause. A falling voice also gets a hand.
Then, once each, without declaring it. Compare how far you get before the hand goes up.
Declaring the type costs one second and buys about two links. That trade is the whole lesson.
Where the links broke
Four sentences from the chains. Fix each and say which link it was.
1. If they would close it, the town would lose its biggest employer.
2. If the town lost its biggest employer, the shops will close too.
3. If the shops closed — and that is the point.
4. Unless somebody doesn’t step in, that is what happens.
One decision, before you start
Three questions.
1. Why do conditional errors cluster at the third link of a chain?
2. What removes about half of them before they happen?
3. Where does the comma go?
Before next lesson. Write your law out in full as an argument. Then mark every conditional with its type, and every comma as K for keep or C for cut.
Bring it on paper. Next lesson you cut it to 230 words and the type has to be consistent inside each chain.