Free Lesson:

The First Conditional: Real Present Or Future Possibilities

Hello and welcome back to English FBA (English For Beginners Academy). 

In Today’s lesson, we will be talking about: First Conditional: Real Present Or Future Possibilities

Objective:

You will learn:

• The structure of the first conditional.
• When to use the first conditional.

Introduction

Conditionals can be a challenging and confusing aspect of the English language to grasp.

In the previous overview of conditionals, we explained that a”condition” means “situation or circumstance”; and by now, you should already know that conditionals are based on the fact that if a particular condition is true, then a particular result happens.

 condition clause (cause) ,    +     result clause (effect)

The following sections cover the first conditional and when to use it in the English language.

The  Structure Of The First Conditional

If +Present Simple,      +        Future Simple

                   or             ⇓  ⇓⇓

                        If +Present Simple,+ (S + will/won’t + verb(bare form))

Example:

1. If it rains, will you take your umbrella? (interrogative form)
2. Yes, if it rains, I will take my umbrella. (affirmative form)
3. But, if it doesn’t rain, I won’t take it. (negative form)

Note!

• In this example, the condition is ‘rain’ and the result is ‘taking the umbrella’.In other words, if it doesn’t rain, I won’t take the umbrella with me: taking the umbrella depends on the weather.)
• Also, note that I included 3 sentences with different forms on purpose. I want you to understand that the use of the tenses must be respected regardless of the way the sentence is formed. The rule stays the same:(simple present + simple future)

When do we use the first conditional?

• The first conditional is commonly used to talk about possible plans, back up plans, promises, warnings, threats, or persuading someone.
• This conditional typically deals with future, real-world events that are pondered daily. In other words,  it deals with issues that have a real possibility of occurring in the future. It refers to things that will possibly happen in the future if a condition is met.

Examples:

1. If you eat this greasy food, you will throw up. (warning)
2. If I have some free time tomorrow, I will help you with your project. (possible plan or promise)
3. If we work hard, we will finish the project on time. (persuading)
4. The kidnaper threatened the lady saying:

‘If you don’t send the money right now, you will never see your son again.'(threat)

Note!

• Sometimes, the first conditional uses the if/then structure and the words will, shall, can or may to convey the future action being considered.

The following sentences are examples of the first conditional:

• • If I can get the time off of work, then I will come to visit you in Florida.

  • If we don’t have what to cook for dinner, we may have to order pizza.

  • I can work from home if my internet connection gets fixed.

  • If it rains tomorrow, I shall go to the movies.

By: Najat A. 

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