conditional sentences with/without if

Conditional Sentences

Source: English for The SLTA-Structure Reference Book II & III, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.

A conditional sentence is a complex sentence expressing a result which is expected from a condition. The condition is stated in a clause which generally begins with the word (/, and the result is expressed in the main clause. The result expected can be real or unreal.

Conditional Sentences with If.

Frame 1: Affirmative Main Clause

	MAIN CLAUSE CONDITIONAL CLAUSE
	SUB­JECT	PREDICATE			IF	SUB­JECT	PREDICATE
		WILL/ WOULD/ WOULD HAVE ETC,	VERB	OB­JECT, ETC.			VERB	OBJECT, ETC.
1	I	will	go		if	he	gives	me the money.
2	He	can	pass	the exam	if	he	studies	hard.
3	She	may	come		if	she	isn’t	ill.
4	I	would	go		if	he	gave	me the money.
5	He	should	pass	the exam	if	he	studied	hard.
6	She	might	come		if	she	weren’t	ill.
7	I	would have	gone		if	he	had given	me the money.
8	He	could have	passed	the exam	if	he	had studied	hard.
9	She	might have	come		if	she	hadn’t been	ill.

1. There are three important types of conditional sentences:

a). Future conditional sentences

b). Present conditional sentences

c). Past conditional sentences

a) A future conditional sentence expresses that something mentioned in the if – clause will probably happen or is likely to happen in the present or in the future.

b) A present conditional sentence expresses that something mentioned in the if – clause is unreal or contrary to the fact of the present.

c) A past conditional sentence also states a contrary – to – the -fact condition. It expresses that something mentioned in the if- clause did not occur in the past.

a) In the future conditional sentence the main clause uses will, can, must, may, to be going to. have to, expect to, plus the first form of a verb. The verb in the conditional clause is in the present tense. See sentences 1, 2 and 3 in the frame.

b) In the present conditional sentence the main clause uses would, could, might, was going to, expected to, plus the first form of a verb. The verb in the conditional clause is in the past tense. See sentences 4, 5 and 6 in the frame.

c) In the past conditional sentence the main clause uses would have, could have, might have, plus the third form of a verb. The verb in the conditional clause is in the past perfect tense. See sentences 7, 8 and 9 in the frame. The contracted forms would’ve, could’ve, etc. are often used instead of would have, could have, etc.

2. When the verb in the present conditional sentence is be, were is commonly used for all persons. See sentence 6 in the frame.

Other examples:

(1) I might come if I weren ‘t ill.

(2) You could go if she were here.

(3) They would study if they were students.

3. The verb form used in the contrary – to – fact condition is also called subjunctive.

The conditional clause can follow or precede the main clause.

Examples:

(1) He will come if he gets a car.

(2) I would go if he gave me the book.

(3) We could have invited her if she had been here. or:

(1) If he gets a car, he will come.

(2) If he gave me the book, / would go.

(3) If she had been here, we could have invited her.

4. When the conditional clause precedes the main clause, it is often separated from the main clause by a comma (,).

5. The main clause can be in the affirmative, interrogative (question); or negative form. All the sentences in the above frame have affirmative main clauses. The conditional clause can be affirmative (sentences 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8) or negative (sentences 3, 6, 9).

Frame 2: Interrogative Main Clause

	MAIN CLAUSE				CONDITIONAL CLAUSE
	WILL/WOULD ETC.	SUBJECT	verb	OB­JECT
1	Will	you	go		if he gives you the money?
2	Can	he	pass	the exam	if he studies hard?
3	May	she	come		if she isn’t ill?
4	Would	you	go		if he gave you the money?
5	Could	he	pass	the exam	if he studied hard?
6	Might	she	come		if she weren’t ill?

Conditional Clause without if

Source: English for The SLTA-Structure Reference Book II & III, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.

Another way of expressing the present and past conditional sentence is by a conditional clause without if.

Frame 1: Conditional Clauses before Main Clauses

	CONDITIONAL CLAUSE				MAIN CLAUSE
	WERE, HAD, SHOULD, COULD, ETC.	SUBJECT	VERB	OBJECT, ETC
1	Were	she		ill	she might not come today.
2	Had	they		a sense of humour	nobody would be bored.
3	Were	he		a doctor	he could help you.
4	Should	he	call		what would you say to him?
5	Had	he	studied	hard	he would have passed the exam.
6	Had	they	come	yesterday	I would’ve seen them.
7	Could	the dead man	have spoken		he would’ve told us who murdered him.

1. If the word if is omitted the conditional clause comes before the main clause and the word order in the conditional clause is the same as the one in a question sentence. The word order in the main clause is not changed. See the sentences in the frame above.

2. The word if can be omitted from the conditional clause if the clause has were or had as a verb, (see sentences 1 —3), or were, had, should, or could as a structure word (see sentences 1 — 7).

3. The conditional clause without if can be made negative by adding not after the subject. The contracted form n’t is never used.

Examples:

(1) Were he not here, he wouldn’t know about it.

(2) Had he not come earlier, you wouldn’t have met him.

4. In a conditional sentence without if, a comma is commonly used after the conditional clause.