Three Step English - Learn #7 - Making Conditional Statements in English - Learn
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Do you know how to make conditional statements in English? Hi, my name is Alisha and this is 3-Step English by EnglishClass101.com. In this lesson, you'll learn how to make conditional statements in English through a quick conversation. Let's look at the dialogue. As you listen, pay attention to how they ask about the topic and how the other person responds. I'll take a size 38 shoe, please. Jing Liu, I think you're more of a size 7.

That doesn't make much sense. Well, how does it fit? It fits perfectly, actually, though I'm still confused. Yeah, if I had a bowling alley, I'd use the metric system. Well, I'll just have to remember I'm a size 7 from now on. Let's go over the dialogue again, more slowly this time. I'll take a size 38 shoe, please. Jing Liu, I think you're more of a size 7. That doesn't make much sense.

Well, how does it fit? It fits perfectly, actually. Though I'm still confused. Yeah, if I had a bowling alley, I'd use the metric system. Well, I'll just have to remember I'm a size 7 from now on. Let's look at the sentence pattern. This pattern is the structure that all of our examples will follow. Past simple verb phrase, would,

Bare infinitive verb phrase. We use this pattern to talk about what would happen in an ideal but unlikely situation. Between the past simple verb phrase and would, there will be a pronoun that refers to the subject. However, it is often contracted with would using words such as eyed, weed, or she'd. Let's see how a line from the dialogue follows this pattern.

Yeah, if I had a bowling alley, I'd use the metric system. The structure starts with "if". This establishes that the following is a "what if" situation. And then "I had a bowling alley" is the past simple verb phrase that follows. This is the ideal, unlikely situation. From there, we move to "I'd".

This is the contraction of the pronoun I and the would of the sentence structure. This shows that someone would do something in this situation and who it is. In this case, the pronoun is I, so it is the speaker who would do something.

Finally, we have "use the metric system." This is the bare infinitive phrase, which establishes what the speaker would do in this ideal, unlikely situation of having a bowling alley. Now let's look at some speaking examples. If I opened a restaurant, I'd open a pizza place. Can you see how the pattern applies here?

We start with if to establish that it's an ideal situation and then follow with the past simple phrase, I opened a restaurant, to establish what that would be. Then we have I'd, the contraction of the pronoun and would to establish who would be doing something in this ideal situation.

Finally, we have "open a pizza place," which is the action they would take. So, in the ideal situation of being able to open a restaurant, the speaker would open a pizza place. Next, if she owned a store, she'd get a lot of business. Here, we start with "if," and the ideal situation is a third person, she, owning a store. Then, we contract the pronoun "she" with "would" to form "she'd."

Lastly, we have the bare infinitive verb phrase "get a lot of business." Let's try one more. If I won the lottery, I'd go bowling every day. If followed by I won the lottery, the past simple verb phrase. Then the contraction I'd and the bare infinitive verb phrase go bowling every day. One last example. If I were you, I'd order two pizzas.

If, then, I were you, followed by the contraction, I'd, and finally, order two pizzas. Let's review. Using the sentence pattern we learned, do you know how the words should be ordered? If. If I. If I had. If I had spare. If I had spare time. If I had spare time, I'd...

If I had spare time, I'd study... If I had spare time, I'd study art. If I had spare time, I'd study art. One more. If I... If I had... If I had money... If I had money, I'd... If I had money, I'd buy...

If I had money, I'd buy lots. If I had money, I'd buy lots of. If I had money, I'd buy lots of books. If I had money, I'd buy lots of books. Thank you for watching! Now you know how to make conditional statements in English, and now you can move on to the practice.