Matières
Niveaux
Conditionals
Fiche | Anglais
Secondaire
3-5
What is the Conditional Mood?
The conditional mood is used in hypothetical situations; situations in which the result depends on whether a situation happens or not.
Conditional sentences connect real or unreal situations to possible or impossible results.
The conditional mood can express what:
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actually happens
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will happen
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could happen
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might have happened
- we wish would have happened
in a particular situation.
Conditional Clauses
Conditional sentences contain two clauses:
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Conditional clause (commonly called the if-clause): the condition/situation
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Main clause: the result
The if-clause is a dependent clause. To form a complete sentence, it needs the hypothetical result.
The condition “If she had her guitar,” does not form a complete sentence. It needs the result, “she would play a song.’’ to be a complete sentence.
Clauses can be moved around in a sentence without changing the meaning.
In writing, there is a minor difference:
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When the if-clause (condition) comes first, a comma follows it to separate it from the main clause (result).
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If the main clause (result) comes first, punctuation isn’t necessary.
How to Form Conditional Sentences
Each conditional type follows a clear structure.
To learn more about the zero conditional, click here.
To learn more about the first conditional, click here.
To learn more about the second conditional, click here.
To learn more about the third conditional, click here.