Conditional Tenses

Conditional tenses are used to speculate about what could happen, what might have happened, and what we wish would happen. In English, most sentences using the conditional contain the word if. Many conditional forms in English are used in sentences that include verbs in one of the past tenses. This usage is referred to as "the unreal past" because we use a past tense but we are not actually referring to something that happened in the past. There are five main ways of constructing conditional sentences in English. In all cases, these sentences are made up of an if clause and a main clause. In many negative conditional sentences, there is an equivalent sentence construction using "unless" instead of "if".

Summary

• Conditional Type 0 (Zero)
  • Usage
    • General truths
  • Structure
    • If clause: Simple Present
    • Main clause: Simple Present

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• Conditional Type 1
  • Usage
    • A possible condition and its probable result
  • Structure
    • If clause: Simple Present
    • Main clause: Simple Future

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• Conditional Type 2
  • Usage
    • A hypothetical condition and its probable result
  • Structure
    • If clause: Simple Past
    • Main clause: Simple Conditional or Conditional Continuous

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• Conditional Type 3
  • Usage
    • An unreal past condition and its probable result in the past
  • Structure
    • If clause: Past Perfect
    • Main clause: Conditional Perfect or Conditional Perfect Continuous

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• Conditional Type 4
  • Usage
    • An unreal past condition and its probable result in the present
  • Structure
    • If clause: Past Perfect
    • Main clause: Simple Conditional or Conditional Continuous

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• Conditional Type 5
  • Usage
    • A hypothetical condition and its probable result in the past
  • Structure
    • If clause: Simple Past
    • Main clause: Conditional Perfect or Conditional Perfect Continuous