Conditional Sentences. Part 2: Unreal Conditionals. If I were a rich man...

A conditional sentence describes a condition that is necessary for a particular result to occur.

 If the weather is fine this weekend, I´ll go skiing.

I.e. I´ll go skiing on condition that the weather is fine this weekend.

There are different types of conditional sentences depending on the meaning we intend to convey. So whether we need to show certainty, a possibility in the future, a hypothesis, or a regret about something that already happened, we will need to use one particular type of conditional sentence or another.

The conjunctions if, even if, when, whenever, whether, and unless (amongst others) often appear in conditional sentences.

As you can see, conditional sentences are not a simple matter and they need to be studied in detail.

In a previous post, I dealt with zero and first conditionals. Next, you´ll be able to have a look at a PowerPoint presentation where I try to clarify unreal conditionals (i.e. 2nd and 3rd types). 

Unreal conditionals from Lola Domínguez

Now, try and practise what you´ve learnt by doing the following exercises:

Mixed conditionals
Conditionals type I, II and III test.

Finally, try working with your conditionals by filling in the gaps in the song "If You Were a Sailboat", by the wonderful Katie Melua.

If you found it useful, I would be terribly happy!

Narrative Tenses

Narrative tenses are the grammatical structures used to refer to the past time. They are used to tell stories and describe past events and states.

Fifty years ago, schools used to be single sex.

Past simple, past continuous, past perfect simple and past perfect continuous  are all narrative tenses. Also, the expressions "used to" and "would" plus infinitive can be used to talk about the past.

These past tenses are used to express:
-A finished action or state that happened at a definite time in the past (Past simple)
     I saw an interesting film last night.
-An action in progress happening at a specific time in the past (Past continuous)
     We were having dinner when someone knocked on the door
-An action or state that happened before a past action or state (Past perfect simple)
     When we arrived at the theatre, the play had already started
-An action in progress that was happening before another past action (past perfect continuous)
     When she arrived he had been waiting for over an hour!

-Things we did in the past but do not do any more ("used to"+infinitive-for actions and states- and "would"+infinitive-only for actions)
     My father used to smoke a lot, but he gave up some years ago. 
    
     When I was a child, we used to live in the countryside and we would walk to school every day.

If you are interested in looking into Narrative Tenses more closely, you can check out the following PowerPoint presentation:

Narrative tenses new english file advanced, Past simple, Past Continuos, Past Perfect Simple, Past Perfect Continuous, Action/ State verbs, Used to / Would, from Lola Domínguez

Now, you could try the following excersises to practice Narrative Tenses:

Narrative Tenses 1
Narrative Tenses 2
Narrative Tenses 3: Used to / Would

For a detailed explanation about "used to", "would", and "be used to" you can follow this link

"Whether" or "If"? That is the question...

This post is the opening of a new section in my blog devoted to easily confused words. Here, I will try to clarify those English words which can cause confusion to the students of this language. I do hope you´ll find it useful!

You may have come across the problem of deciding whether to use "whether" or whether to use "if". Well, I´ve tried to explain this issue in the following PowerPoint presentation. I think it may help you understand the difference between these two easily confused words.

Now, you can try the following exercise to check your understanding.

Adverbs

Nouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositions,... are parts of speech which are easy to point out.  Adverbs are tricky words, though. They usually give students a hard time because they find it difficult to identify them.

Adverbs can tell you when, where, why, how and to what extent something happens.

They are words or expressions that may:
    - describe a verb: "She dances beautifully";
    - modify an adjective: "The exam turned out to be very easy";
    - modify another adverb: "I can´t understand him: he speaks very quickly";
    - or even modify an entire sentence:

"Fortunately, we arrived on time for the flight".

Many adverbs are formed by adding the suffix -ly to some adjectives (quick- quickly; true - truly; happy- happily,...). However, neither all adverbs end in -ly (always, never, just, well,...) nor all the words ending in -ly are adverbs (friendly, lonely, lively).

 

"She sang beautifully last night".

And one more thing: some adverbs have exactly the same form as the corresponding adjective (hard, fast, late, early, left, right, long, wrong, high)

     - "He was driving extremely fast when the police stopped him".
     - "She´s got a fast car".

The position of adverbs is not a simple matter either. Although, to a certain extent, there is some freedom to place them in the sentence, there are some rules which must be observed.

Perhaps you would find it useful to have a look at the following PowerPoint Presentation about word order and adverbs.

Wordorder adverbs from Lola Domínguez

Now, try the following exercises:

If you still feel you need further practice, you could click on the following links and work on them:
Adverb or Adjective?
Adverbs with two Forms and Different Meanings
Adverbs often Confused
Quiz on Adverbs

Auxiliary and Modal Verbs

Auxiliary and modal verbs are used in different ways in English and having a good command of them will make students of English as a foreign language much more competent speakers.

Question tags are one of the most familiar structures for students of English but there are other uses of auxiliary and modal verbs which are by no means less common. These verbs are also used:

-In short answers: 

          A. "Do you like him?"   B. "Yes, I do"

-To avoid repetition: 

          "I love sunbathing on the beach, but my husband doesn´t"

-To show agreement with so and neither:   

          A. "She can´t understand politicians"   B. "Neither can I!"

-With echo questions: 

          A. "I went to a psychic last weekend"   B. "Did you?"

-To show emphasis: 

A bit confusing, isn´t it? Ok, then try and have a look at the following PowerPoint presentation and I do hope this murky matter will become crystal clear for you!

Auxiliary and modal verbs from Lola Domínguez

You can get some practice by clicking on the following links:

Question tags: http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/questions/question_tags.htm

Echo questions: http://personales.ya.com/englishcourse/6.3.5.htm

So & neither: http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/68.html

If you still feel you need further practice, just google what you want. Don´t forget that on the net there are plenty of resources at your fingertips!

Conditional Sentences. Part 1

Conditional sentences are a grammar issue which students of English must strive to learn due to their complexity, on the one hand, and their practicality, on the other hand.

They are complex sentences formed by a main clause and a subordinate clause. The subordinate clause states a condition and the main clause states a consequence, and the idea is that given the condition, the consequence will take place.

Although "if" is the most usual conjunction used in conditional sentences, there are others which also occur, such as "whether" "unless", "provided that", "as long as", "on condition that", etc.

In this first post regarding conditionals, only zero conditionals and first conditionals are dealt with. Second and third conditionals will shortly be attended to. Also, some attention is given to the so called "time clauses" which are somewhat similar to first conditional sentences because they follow the same pattern.

If you pay attention to the following power point, you will understand this grammar issue better. 

Zero conditionals, first conditionals and time clauses

View more PowerPoint from Lola Domínguez
I hope you´ll find it useful!

Now, try these exercises:

Zero and First Conditionals

First Conditionals (Put the verbs in the right tenses)

Time Clauses (Put the verbs in the right tenses)
"In case" and "in case of"

What the future holds…

Future time can be expressed in English in different ways. Using the auxiliary “will / shall” together with the bare infinitive of the main verb is the most neutral and most usual way of conveying the idea of future time in English. However, there are other structures which are also used to refer to future time in different situations, namely the present simple, to be going to + bare infinitive, the present continuous (be + verb-ing), the future perfect and the future continuous.

Image credit

Here are some examples:

- I´ll be home at ten o´clock, I promise, mum!   (A promise)

- I think it´ll rain tomorrow.   (An assumption with regards to the future)

- (Telephone ringing) I´ll get it!   (A spontaneous decision)

- Time will tell.   (An action in the future that cannot be influenced)

- It´s getting hot in here. Shall I open the window?   (An offer- Only with 1^st person singular and plural)

- The train leaves at 4 o´clock.   (A scheduled event in the near future)

- The sky is getting greyer and greyer. It´s going to rain any minute.   (A prediction based on evidence)

- We are going to travel to London next Easter.   (A plan: a decision is made)

- We are travelling to London next Easter. The flight was very cheap.  (A plan: the arrangements are made)

The last two tenses mentioned, the future perfect and the future continuous, are explained in the following presentation:

Future perfect and future continuous

View more PowerPoint from Lola Domínguez

Now you can try the following exercise to check what you learnt with the previous presentation.