Lesson 91: Zero conditional

Conditionals

Objetivo: emplear condicionales usando las estructuras correspondientes dependiendo del

contexto.
 Conditionals
Andy: What time are you going to come back home?
Susan: I don’t know. If I finish my task early, I will return before seven.
Andy: But you could finish it tomorrow, couldn’t you?
Susan: No, if I don’t finish it on time, my boss will fire me.
Andy: Don’t worry! Anyway, I will wait for you. I don’t want to eat dinner alone.

The underlined sentences above are called Conditional sentences and are used to express that an action can only take
place if a certain condition is fulfilled. They describe a condition and a result that follows.

Condition: if I finish my task early.

Result: I will return before seven.

Condition: if I don’t finish today.

Result: my boss fires me.
 Conditionals
In conclusion, conditional Sentences have two clauses:

IF CLAUSE RESULT CLAUSE

If he eats too much ice cream, he will get overweight.

If I see a snake, I cry very loud.
If you don’t come back early, I won’t open the door.

There are two categories of conditional sentences:

For real
REAL
situations
CONDITIONAL
for unreal or
UNREAL imaginary
situations
 Conditionals
1. Real conditionals: We use them when the condition (if clause) is possible to occur and obviously the result (result
clause) happens too either in the present or in the future. They are used to talk about what normally happens in real-life
situations or to express general truths.

- If the weather is nice, I will go to the park with my friends.

- If Peter has time, he will help me with my homework.
- If my mother has a day off from work, she stays at home and watches TV.
- If you come next weekend, I will make a delicious chocolate cake.

The real conditionals have specific grammatical structure and they can be of two types:

ZERO
CONDITIONAL
REAL
CONDITIONAL
FIRST
CONDITIONAL
 Conditionals

 Zero conditional: It is normally used to express universal, common truths.

This is common in science for unique results.

- If the traffic light turns green, people wait to cross the street.

- If there is nothing on TV, my brother plays video games.

Grammatical structure for zero conditional:

IF CLAUSE RESULT CLAUSE

IF + SIMPLE PRESENT, + SIMPLE PRESENT
If I get up after 6 am, I arrive late to work.
If you add water to oil, they don’t mix.
If my sister fails the math exam, my parents get angry.
 English is easy
You can do it!
Autor de la metodología: Francisco González Cifuentes
Supervisión académica: Mayra Teresa Hurtado Mendoza
Diseño y adaptación: Diana Paola Perez Muñoz
Fotografía e imágenes: www.shutterstock.com / www.freepik.com