English Grammar Rules to use ‘IF’ correctly in Conditional Sentences – Learn English with Michelle – Free Lesson
English Grammar rules always confuse students while learning English, one such English Grammar mistake is made while using IF in conditional sentences. This English Grammar lesson for beginners and advanced students with your English teacher Michelle, learn the correct use of IF in spoken English so that you avoid these common mistakes in spoken English and speak English fluently and confidently. You are watching this English lesson on Let’s Talk English speaking Institute, our effort is to make learning english fun and easy. We have lessons ranging from English Grammar rules, Advanced English vocabulary, American English Phrases, British English, Accent Training, Lessons for IELTS and much more to make your English better. You could join our English speaking course in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai for personalised English lesson plans.
Complete Lesson Transcript –
When do we use ‘if’? Generally we use ‘if’ to imagine, but in this lesson we are using ‘if’ for conditions, yes! Do you wanna learn how to use if for conditions? Then stay glued to the lesson with me Michelle and let’s go.
Let’s start with the first one, “If he takes vitamins every day he doesn’t get sick.” This is our first example. What action is being performed here? The action of taking vitamins every day. What do you think when you read the word every day? Something that happens regularly. Regularly. And what happens if he takes vitamins every day? He doesn’t get sick. What’s that? That’s the result. Yes or maybe we can see that’s the outcome. So what have you learnt? We use if, to talk about the outcome of an action that is regularly done or that is repeated. So this is one way you can use ‘if’ for a condition and the condition is to talk about a repeated action. Repeated action.
Let’s look at the second one, “If you pour all on water, it floats.” Is that true? Does it float? Have you ever tried pouring oil on water? What happens? Does it sink? No, it floats. And what is this? Is this a scientific fact? Yes and is this always true? Yes, it is. So another way of using ‘if’ is to talk about a scientific fact which is always true and here also we have an outcome like the first example. I’ll write it for you, “To talk about a scientific fact which is always true.” Like this one here, “If water evaporates, it turns into vapors.” Isn’t this also a scientific fact which is always true? Yes it is.
With that we move on to the third one, “If you get here before 8:00, we can catch the earlier train.” Are we imagining here? Not really! It’s a condition again and we have an outcome. What will happen if you get here before 8:00? We can catch the earlier train. But here, why are we seeing this? What is the reason, like these two? “I’ll write it for you, “To talk about a possibility.” Yes, a possibility in the near future. “A possibility in the near future.”
And how do we really form these sentences, where we use ‘if’ for conditions? Let’s find out, the ‘form’. So as you can see in all of them, let’s keep this one for now we’ll come to it later. We have ‘if’, so we can use ‘if’ (+) what tense is this clause in? What do you think? This tense is in the clause, is in the ‘present simple tense’. So ‘if’ (+) ‘present simple’. And what do we have here? What’s this? A little one, it’s a comma. It’s very important that you have a comma between, what is this? This is called an ‘if clause’ and this is called a ‘result clause’. You can also call this a ‘condition clause’ and you can also call, call this a ‘result clause’. So it’s very important to have a comma between the first clause and the second clause. ‘If’ (+) ‘present simple’ comma and what is this? “He doesn’t get sick,” ‘present simple’ again. But we have no ‘if’ in the second clause because it’s a ‘result clause’. There is something you need to be very careful when you’re using ‘present simple tense’, and what is that? Let’s look at this sentence, ‘if’, this one here, “If water evaporates it turns into vapors.” Okay, let’s look at this word, evaporate but why do we have this is ‘S’? Sorry why do we have this ‘S’ here? Because here we are talking about a third… second person. Whenever we have he, she or it or whenever we talk about the second person, we use ‘S’. For example, “If he takes vitamins every day, he doesn’t get sick.” We have an ‘S’ and here also we have an ‘S’ and here again with it we use an ‘S’, use ‘S’. I’ll write it for you here, “He, she or it you’re going to use ‘S’.
Let’s look at the last sentence. Doesn’t that seem a bit different? Isn’t it? We were talking about ‘if’, where do we get a ‘when’ from actually ‘when’ has the same meaning as an ‘if’ when we talk about conditions. Yes, “When I miss the best bus, I’m late for work.” Or, “If I miss the bus, I’m late for work.” Does the meaning change? Not really! So you can actually replace an ‘if’ with ‘when’ or a ‘when’ with ‘if’. Have you heard that song, “When you’re alone, strangers are dangerous…” Have you heard that song? Or, “When you’re down, the streets seem lonely…” It all talks about a condition. Maybe you can YouTube it and hear the song and you’ll get more of an idea about how to use ‘if’ or ‘when’ for conditions.
So this brings us to the end of the lesson and what have we learned today? Do you know this is a very scary grammar topic? It’s called ‘zero conditionals’ Yes, it’s so scary, right? But you know learning gets easier, when you’re learning with me. I hope to see you again in another grammar lesson, till then you miss me and I’m gonna miss you too. Bye-bye