CONDITIONAL CLAUSES

The meanings of conditional sentences types 2 and 3:

2. a. I cannot fly because I am not a bird.

b. He does not go by car because he doesn’t have one.

c. He is not very happy because his wife works outside.

3. a. He didn’t stay at home because he was not sick yesterday.

b. They didn’t win the match because they didn’t practice a lot.

Exercise 1

Supply a suitable tense of the verbs in brackets.

1. You will be ill if you (eat) so much.

2. I (go) if I had known.

3. If my car (not break) down, I should have caught the train.

4. If she were older, she (have) more sense.

5. If you (read) that book carefully, you would understand it.

6. If the children (be) good, they can stay up late.

7. I (buy) that hat if it were not so expensive.

8. You (kill) yourself if you always work as hard as that.

9. If they had waited, they (find) me.

10. I’m sure she will do well if she (go) to the university.

11. If it (be) fine tomorrow, I will play tennis.

12. I would not have thought it possible if I (not see) it myself.

13. The soldiers will fight bravely if they (understand) their orders.

14. If she hit the dog, it (bite) her.

15. We (be) pleased if our school won the match.

Exercise 2

Read the following situation and write sentences with “if”.

Example: We don’t visit you very often because you live so far away.
If you didn’t live so far away, we would visit you more often.
1. People don’t understand him because he doesn’t speak clearly.

2. I’m not going to buy that book because it’s too expensive.

3. She doesn’t go out very often because she can’t walk without help.

4. He’s fat because he doesn’t take any exercise.

5. We can’t have lunch in the garden because it’s raining.

6. I can’t meet you tomorrow evening because I have to work.

7. The accident happened because the driver stopped so suddenly.

8. I didn’t wake George because I didn’t know he wanted to get up early.

9. I was able to buy the car because Jim lent me the money.

10. She wasn’t injured in the crash because she was wearing a seat-belt.