Page 126 - New Grammar with a Smile 8

Conditional

18 Clauses

Warm-up

Read this conversation between Amit and his mother.

Mother to Amit:

If you finish your homework, I will take you for a movie. If you help me to water
the plants, I will buy you some chocolate. If you play with your brother in the
afternoons, I will give you a board game of your choice.

Amit: Oh mother! You always lay down so many conditions for me! If I fulfil all
your conditions, will you do what you have promised?

Mother: Yes, of course!

You may have noticed that Amit’s mother put up a lot of conditions before she agreed
to fulfil his wishes. She used the word if to put across her conditions.

Conditional sentences are sentences which express a condition for the action of the
main clause to take place.

The clause which expresses the result is the main clause of the sentence, while
the clause which expresses the condition is the subordinate clause, called the
conditional clause.

Study the following conditional sentence:
• If an apple drops from a height, then it will fall onto the ground.

In this example, the if-clause is in the simple present and the main clause is in the
simple future. It could very well be in the simple present as well.

The sentence would then become:
• If an apple drops from a height, then it falls onto the ground.

Let us now analyse three similar-looking examples.
• If Joe stays up late, he can finish his assignment.
• If Joe stayed up late, he could finish his assignment.
• If Joe had stayed up late, he could have finished his assignment.

126