TYPES OF CONDITIONAL SENTENCES
Summarizing Exercise
Exercise 37. Fill in the blanks using Active Words of Unit 1; mind the use of Subjunctive II.
a) A. I’d rather you didn’t ___ at me like this.
B. Like what?
A. You aren’t ___ at me, you are ___. I hate it when people ___ at me.
b) A. His name certainly rings the bell. I just can’t remember it now.
B. What had he been doing before he started to ___ our sport club?
A. He used to be a sportsman, a ___, actually.
c) A. If only I had been in his office, none of it would have happened!
B. It wouldn’t have made any ___. Well, here are the papers.
A. But there were more! What about the ___ of the documents?
d) A. But for the ___ in their manner to talk, I wouldn’t even know if it is Peter or Michael.
B. Yes, those twins ___ very much ___. Just like two drops of water.
Sentences with adverbial clauses of condition are usually called conditional sentences. According to classification I there are 4 types of conditional sentences.
1) Conditional sentences of real condition. In such sentences the Indicative Mood is used both in the principal and in the subordinate clause.
E.g. If anybody asks, I’ll be in my office.
2) Conditional sentences of unreal condition referring to the present or the future. In such sentences the non-perfect form of the Conditional mood is used in the principal clause and the non-perfect form of Subjunctive II is used in the adverbial subordinate clause of condition.
E.g. If we had more time, we would go sightseeing.
E.g. ‘I know. But I’d stillliketo see the look on Father Bernard’s face if he found a lock he couldn’t open.’ (J. Saul)
3) Conditional sentences of unreal condition referring to the past. In such sentences the perfect form of the Conditional mood is used in the principal clause and the perfect form of Subjunctive II is used in the adverbial subordinate clause of condition.
E.g. If we had hadmore time then, we would have gone sightseeing.
E.g. ‘What would he have done if she’d reached out and touched him? If he’d ignored her, she’d have died.’ (S. Craven)
4) Mixed conditional sentences, which are the combination of types 2 and 3. One of the clauses refers to the present or to the future, while the other refers to the past.
E.g. We wouldn’t haveproblems now, if you had completedyour project.
Classification II
According to the other classification there are 5 types of conditional sentences. Type II shows the use of the Suppositional mood. The present tense (the Non-Perfect form) of the Suppositional mood (should do sth.) is used in clauses of condition to show that the action is not likely to take place. Such clauses may be called clauses of problematic condition.
| Type | Translation |
| I. Sentences of real condition E.g. If I take this medicine, I will feel better. | Если я приму лекарство, то буду чувствовать себя лучше. |
| II. Sentences of problematic condition E.g. If I should take this medicine, I will feel better. | Если я все же приму лекарство, то буду чувствовать себя лучше. |
| III. Sentences of unreal condition with reference to the Present and Future E.g. If I took this medicine, I would feel better. | Если бы я приняла лекарство, я бы чувствовала себя лучше. |
| IV. Sentences of unreal condition with reference to the Past E.g. If I had taken this medicine, I would have felt better. | Если бы я приняла лекарство, я бы чувствовала себя лучше. |
| V. Mixed type E.g. If I had taken this medicine, I would feel better. | Если бы я приняла лекарство (тогда), я бы чувствовала себя лучше (сейчас). |
Exercise 38. Read the proverbs. Suggest the situations to be illustrated by these proverbs.
If there were no clouds, we shouldn’t enjoy the sun.
If my aunt had been a man, she’d have been my uncle.
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
If wishes were fishes, we’d all cast nets.
If worst comes to worst.
Exercise 39. Read the poem, mind the use of Subjunctive II and the Conditional Mood. Learn the poems.
The Hoarse Horse
Kay Smith
If a horse caught a cold,
And his nose got all runny,
He would be a hoarse horse,
And he sure would sound funny.
If a beet in a garden
Could not stand the heat
On a hot sunny day,
He would be a beat beet.
If your mom wants a robot
To clean, cook and sew,
She might get a made maid
From a factory, you know.
If I Had a Donkey
A.A. Milne
If I had a donkey and he wouldn’t go,
Do you think I would hit him?
No, no, no.
I’d put him in the stable
And give him some straw,
And the poor little donkey
Wouldn’t work any more.
If I were King
A.A. Milne
I often wish I were a King.
And then I could do anything.
If only I were King of Spain,
I’d take my hat off in the rain.
If only I were King of France,
I wouldn’t brush my hair for aunts.
I think, if I were King of Greece,
I’d push things off the mantelpiece.
If I were King of Norroway1,
I’d ask an elephant to stay.
If I were King of Babylon,
I’d leave my button gloves undone.
If I were King of Timbuctoo,
I’d think of lovely things to do.
If I were King of anything,
I’d tell the soldiers, “I’m the King!”
1 Norroway – Norway
Exercise 40. State the type of the Conditional sentences.
1. I don’t think so! If I decide where to go, I will do it myself. 2. He would have taken pictures if he had had his camera fixed. 3. If you had asked them, they would have paid cash. 4. If I can do it, you can do it too. 5. If we had been allowed to use dictionaries, we would have written the test successfully. 6. If you weren’t so lazy, you would have cleaned the flat. 7. If I had this book, I would be so happy. 8. If you wrote to us regularly, we would have known about your visit to our town. 9. She would invite you if she were up to going out. 10. It would have seemed natural if you had called and apologized.
Exercise 41. Role-play the jokes.
***
“Mama, I’ve got a stomachache,” said Nellie, aged six.
“That’s because you’ve been without lunch. Your stomach is empty. You would feel better if you had something in it.” That afternoon the minister called, and in the course of conversation remarked that he had been suffering all day from a severe headache.
“That’s because it's empty,” said Nellie. “You’d feel better if you had something in it.”
***
“Why didn’t you deliver the message as instructed?” a chief asked his servant.
“I did the best I could, sir.”
“The best you could! Why, if I had known I was going to send a donkey, I would have gone myself.”
***
“What a boy you are for asking questions!” said the father. “I’d like to know what would have happened if I’d asked as many questions when I was a boy.”
“Perhaps,” answered the young hopeful, “you’d have been able to answer some of mine.”
***
Sam and Jim were having dinner when, to Jim’s disgust, Sam calmly helped himself to the larger fish on the plate.
“Fine manners you have got, Sam,” Jim remarked. “If I had been in your place, I should have taken the smaller fish.” “Well,” replied Sam with his mouth full, “you have got it.”
Exercise 42. Make up sentences.
| If I were you | I would | have a short rest. help them. go for a walk. rely on her. not/trust them. order the dessert. tell him about your job. |
| I would have | return the text book to him. congratulated him on his birthday. left their house immediately. confirmed the tickets. agreed to take up that job. |
Exercise 43. Make suggestions starting with If I were you … Address them to other students and your teacher.
Exercise 44. Render the stories and render using your Active Grammar.
A
A husband who was to keep house
(an English tale)
There lived a man who was always angry because he thought that his wife never did anything right in the house. One evening he came home grumbling. “Dear husband, don’t be so angry,” said his wife. “I have been thinking, and I have thought of a plan. If we exchange work, everything will be al right. So tomorrow, if you don’t object, I shall go to the fields and you will stay at home and mind the house.”
The husband thought that if he did so, it would be very good.
Early next morning the woman went into the fields thinking: “If my grumbler doesn’t do his work, I shall make fun of him on returning home.”
The husband wanted at first to churn the butter, but then he thought: “If I went down into the cellar to take some ale, I should work with greater pleasure.”
But just as he had taken the tap out of the barrel, he heard that the pig came into the kitchen. Then he ran out of the cellar with the tap in his hand as fast as he could to look
after the pig lest it should overturn the churn because he knew that if his wife found no butter on returning home, she would scold him.
But when he rushed into the kitchen, tap in his hand, he saw that the pig had already overturned the churn, had eaten the cream and was now looking at him as if saying: “I should be very glad if you gave me cream every day.”
It made him so angry that he gave the pig such a kick that it fell down dead.
Then at once he remembered that he had the tap in his hand but when he got down into the cellar, the last drop of ale had already run out of the barrel.
“What a fool I was,” he thought. “If I hadn’t flown into a rage, I shouldn’t have killed my only pig, and shouldn’t have lost my ale.”
Then he found some more cream and began to churn, for if he didn’t make any butter, his wife would scold him. But then he remembered that he had to bring water to boil some porridge but he was afraid to leave the room. “If I leave the room,” he thought, “the child is sure to overturn the churn.”
So he took the churn on his back and went with it to the well. But as he bent down over the side of the well, all the cream ran out of the churn over his shoulders. “What a block-head I am,” he cried in despair. “If I hadn’t taken the churn on my back I shouldn’t have lost the last drop of cream.”
Just then his wife came home, and great was his shame when he found himself standing before her in such a position. “Had I only known how difficult it is to keep house I should have never agreed to take your place.”
“You are an old fool,” replied his wife. “Now listen. If ever again you return home grumbling, I shall turn you out of the house. If a man tries to find fault with other people without any reason, it is he who is at fault.”
Then she added looking at his dirty clothes, “Well, if I were you, I should go and wash.”
B
The Gate Without a Latch
A farmer had a gate which opened into a field, and as the latch on it was broken, it always stood open. So the chickens ran out into the field and the cattle got into the yard. The farmer’s wife often complained about it and repeated: “When will you buy a new latch?” To which the farmer replied angrily, “You always want me to buy things. If I listened to you, we wouldn’t have a penny.”
Once the farmer was tying his horse in the yard when he saw his fattest pig run out into the field. “I must catch it before it crosses the field and gets into the wood.” So he ran after the pig letting the horse go.
His wife who was ironing his best shirt saw it all out of the window and ran after him. Their young daughter who was minding the soup watched them for a time and then ran out too.
“Those people,” she thought, “will never catch the pig unless I help them.”
It so happened that she fell and hurt her leg. Her parents had to carry her back home while the pig disappeared in the wood. At home they saw that the horse had trampled the kitchen-garden, the iron had burnt the farmer’s best shirt and the soup had boiled over.
Then they started quarrelling.
“If you hadn’t left the horse untied, it wouldn’t have trampled the kitchen-garden,” shouted the wife.
“And if you had minded your own business, my shirt wouldn’t have been burnt through!” answered the farmer.
Then they both attacked the girl: “If you had watched the soup, we would have some dinner now.” But it was the wife who had the last word, of course. “If you had bought a latch, nothing would have happened.”
Exercise 45. Imagine the possible circumstances. What would you do if…
Model: If you were a millionaire … – If I were a millionaire, I would travel all over the world and I would bring rare species of animals to my own zoo. If would be very famous and the zoo would be world-famous. Many people would visit my zoo and I would become a multi-millionaire.
1. If you were famous …
2. If you were a rock star …
3. If there were no alarm-clocks …
4. If you had a new car …
5. If you had much free time …
6. If you had a pet …
7. If you decided to live abroad …
8. If you were a poet …
9. If you had a brand new cell phone …
10. If you had the largest diamond in the world …
11. If you were completely alone on a tropical island …
12. If you had many relatives …
Exercise 46. Make up wishes and/or regrets about past actions. What would you have done if…
Model: If youhad entered a different University... – If I had entered a different University, I wouldn’t have learnt Geology and wouldn’t have participated in field work activities.
1. If you had woken up early last Sunday …
2. If you had been given a chance to enter another University …
3. If there hadn’t been World War II …
4. If you had been in touch with your distant friend …
5. If you had refused to go on a trip in summer …
6. If you hadn’t had a radio …
7. If you had forgotten to take your passport with you …
8. If you had gone in for sport …
9. If you had had a big sum of money to invest …
10. If you had been more diligent last year …
11. If you had chosen to go in for sports …
12. If your friend had told you a lie …
Exercise 47. Develop the chain of actions according to the model.
Model: If I took my CD player… - If I took my CD player, I would listen to my new mp3 disk. If I listened to my new mp3 disk, the battery would run low in 2 hours. If the battery ran low, I would have to charge it.
1. If I were at the seaside …
2. If I parked too close to this car …
3. If I sneezed again …
4. If I were hungry …
5. If I overslept again …
6. If I touched wet paint …
7. If I lent you some money …
8. If I cooked a new dish …
9. If I didn’t do my homework …
10. If I went for a walk …
11. If I had a dog …
12. If I were upset …
Exercise 48. Role-play the jokes.
***
A sentimental lady on an excursion in forest stopped before a big tree.
“Oh, wonderful elm,” she said, “If you could only speak, what would you say to me?”
The accompanying her said: “It would probably say: Excuse me, but I’m an oak.”
***
Man: What are you crying for?
Boy: I’ve lost my penny.
Man: Never mind. Here’s another.
Boy: (takes the coin and goes on crying)
Man: Why don’t you stop?
Boy: Oh, sir, if I hadn’t lost the other one, I’d have two now.
Exercise 49. Translate into English using your Active Grammar.
1. Мы бы виделись чаще, если бы жили по соседству. 2. Я бы ответил, если бы знал ответ. 3. Я бы попросила прощения, если бы я была неправа. 4. Если бы у меня была с собой такая сумма, я бы обязательно купила ту сумку. 5. Если бы я был на твоем
месте, я бы никогда так не повел себя. 6. Если бы вы знали причину моего опоздания, вы бы не сердились так. 7. Если бы не твоя рассеянность, ты не забыл бы билеты дома. 8. Если бы она приехала в Москву неделю назад, то она застала бы нас. 9. Интересно, узнал бы он меня сейчас, если бы мы встретились сейчас. 10. Он попросил бы вас остаться, если бы обсуждение вопроса не было бы закончено.