Teach English in Dingning Zhen - Wuwei Shi

A conditional sentence consists of two clauses, the ?if? clause and the main clause. The ?if? clause contains the condition that has to be satisfied before the action or state in the main clause can be released. The main clause is the consequence. Example: If I had money, I would travel the world. In the given example, having money is the condition and traveling the world is a consequence. The five main conditionals are as follows: 1. Zero conditional: Form: if+ present simple, present tense in main clause Usage: It refers to actions and facts that are irrefutable. Example: If water freezes, it turns into ice. In zero conditional, ?if? and ?when? are used interchangeably. Example: When water freezes, it turns into ice. 2. First conditional: if+present simple, ?will? in the mail clause Sometimes ?will? can be replaced by a modal verb like may, might, can, should. Usage: This talks about a real situation in the future that is possible once the condition has been satisfied. Example: He might pass the exam if he works hard. 3. Second conditional: if+past simple, would/could/might+base form in main clause When the verb ?to be? is used in the ?if? clause can be ?if I was? or ?if I were?. The clause ?if I were? is used most of the time. Usage: It communicates a present or future hypothetical situation that is presently not true and unlikely to happen. Example: If I had the money, I would travel the world. If I were a millionaire, I would feed the hungry. 4. Third conditional: Form: if+past perfect, would/could/might+have+past participle in the main clause Usage: It refers to a hypothetical past action (or non-action) and hypothetical past consequence. As the action was purely hypothetical, the condition would have never been satisfied. Example: If she had seen me, she would have been very happy. 5. Mixed conditional: It is usually a mix of second conditional clause and third conditional clause. Many other mixes are possible but not so common. Form: if+past perfect, would+base form in the main clause Usage: It refers to a hypothetical past action or state and a hypothetical present consequence. If I had listened to her, I would be happy now. Direct speech: Direct speech is saying what exactly is spoken by a person Example: Chan said, ?I am going home?. Chan asked, ?What are you doing??. Reported speech: Reported Speech (also called Indirect Speech) is used to communicate what someone else said, think or believe, with a few changes. It is how we represent the speech of other people or what we ourselves say. Example: Chan said that he was going home. Chan asked what he was doing. The following rules are applicable when changing direct speech to recorded speech: 1. Present simple changes into past simple: She said, ?I work in a school?. She said that she worked in a school. 2. Present continuous changes to past continuous He said, ?I am waiting for someone?. He said that he was waiting for someone. 3. Present perfect changes into past perfect. She said, ?I have completed the work?. She said that she had completed the work. 4. Present perfect continuous changes in past perfect continuous. She said, ?I have been working in a factory for two years? She said that she had been working in a factory for two years. 5. Past simple changes to past perfect. She said, ?I bought a new car?. She said that she had bought a new car. 6. Past continuous changes to past perfect continuous. He said, ?I was writing a story?. He said that he had been writing a story. 7. Past perfect does not change its form. I remains the same. They said, ?We had won the game?. They said that they had won the game. 8. In future tenses, ?will? changes to ?would?. She said, ?I will go to London?. She said that she would go to London. 9. The words ?may? changes to might and ?can? changes to could. Raj asked, ?Can I play football?? Raj asked if he could play football. 10. Similarly, the following table gives the list of all words which changes in indirect speech. ?Now? changes to ?then?. ?Here? changes to ?there?. ?Hereafter? changes to ?thereafter?. ?This? changes to ?that?. ?These? changes to ?those?. ?ago? changes to ?before?. ?thus? changes to ?so?. ?today? changes to ?that day?. ?tonight? changes to ?that night?. ?last night? changes to ?the previous night?. ?yesterday? changes to ?the day before? or ?the previous day?. ?Tomorrow? changes to ?the next day? or ?the following day?. ?last week? changes to ?the week before? or ?the previous week?. ?next week? changes to ?the week after? or ?the following week?. ?last month? changes to ?the month before? or ?the previous month?. ?Next month? changes to ?the month after?. ?Hither? changes to ?thither?. ?Hence? changes to ?thence?.