Hey there! This is TOP episode 56: Mixed Conditionals 2+1.
My name’s Ola and I am an English teacher. My goal is to help you start speaking English with confidence and get rid of speaking barriers. It’s time you started speaking English fearlessly! Go to my website for full transcripts and worksheets to each episode. Happy learning!
Hello, welcome to today’s episode. Thank you for being here! This is the last episode on conditionals. As for now. Please please make sure you’ve listened to other episodes on this podcast about them. There are all conditional sentence types covered, please find the links in the show notes to this episode at teacherola.com/56. It’s necessary for you to understand them fully and use confidently. Before going into all those mixes.
Today we’re going to talk about type 2 and type 1 mixed into one sentence. It’s not that common, but I’d say it’s worth those few minutes of your time. And I hope that after all the episodes on conditionals you can so to speak feel them and use without hesitation. I hope you’ve done the worksheets which always come with episodes and they’re always available for free at teacherola.com/podcast. Each episode has its own worksheet.
Ok. Now let’s get down to business. Why would anyone want to mix a condition from the second conditional and a result from the first one? Past simple plus ‘will’? Yes, let’s break down the structure first. It’s past simple tense in a conditional clause and future simple, that is will plus infinitive in the main clause. Listen and repeat:
If you ruined my shirt I will kill you.
As you may have noticed this mix is very different from what we’ve learned so far. This time the condition is just hypothetical. I’m not 100% sure you ruined my dress. ‘If’ here is more like: given that, or accepting that. So think about it.
Given that you ruined my shirt…
If you ruined my shirt…
I don’t know for sure, but maybe somebody told me so. I don’t know exactly but if it’s true if you ruined my shirt… and a result. So, this clause comes from the second conditional but differs from it so much. In normal second conditional this if-clause refers to unrealistic, imaginary situations, impossible now: like if I had a car, if I had two million dollars, if I were you. But here, in this 2+1 mix, we speak about a condition which is possibly true.
Listen and repeat again:
If you ruined my shirt, I will kill you.
I accept the truth I’ve just been told about and I’m now drawing a conclusion from that. That is my result clause, my main clause: I will kill you.
Let’s break down one more example. Listen and repeat:
If they took an umbrella, they won’t get wet.
Given that they took an umbrella, they won’t get wet.
I really don’t know whether they took it or not, but if they did, they will be fine. Maybe somebody’s just told me that they took it, so I’m sort of relieved: Oh, ok, if they took an umbrella, They won’t get wet. Won’t means will not, just for the record. They will not get wet.
Ok, time for some more practice! Find even more in the worksheet which is awaiting for you at teacherola.com/56. Shall we? Ok! Listen and repeat:
If hey destroyed the documents, they will be punished.
If he missed the train, he will be late.
If he cheated during the exam, he’ll be in serious trouble.
If nobody bought milk, I won’t have cereal for breakfast.
If they were working all day, they will be tired.
If they took an umbrella, they won’t get wet.
If you ruined my shirt, I will kill you.
If you didn’t lock the door, I will have to go back there.
If they didn’t tell the truth we’ll be in trouble.
If she didn’t clean her room, she won’t go out tonight.
If Ana lied to me, I won’t talk to her.
I know you might have a feeling that past perfect should be used here. But please, open for new possibilities. Remember this is a weird kind of condition in which we only accept the possibility, right? Go to examples again and practice one more time just to make sure they are clear. Please download a transcript and check yourself. And download the worksheet. By the way, if you’ve subscribed to my newsletter you receive the worksheet every week. With a little love letter from me. So go ahead and subscribe!
Let me know what you think! Go to teacherola.com/56 and leave a comment! Make one sentence in this pattern. Mix those conditionals.
If you find this episode useful tell your friends about me. And in the next episode, we’ll be focusing on pronunciation. Subscribe to my podcast if you haven’t yet.
Oh! I forgot to tell you I’m going to have a little holiday now , so I won’t be here for the next two weeks. So, the next episode is going to appear only in September. Thank you so much for listening and I’ll see you in September! Happy learning. Bye!