Tuesday 18 May 2010

Quick English - Bystander

A bystander is someone who, by chance, is present at some event, and sees what happened.

"After the crash, the police asked the bystanders what they saw"

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Tuesday 11 May 2010

The First Conditional

As you know there are four conditionals in English, the zero, the first, the second and the third, in this lesson I would like to look at first conditional.

Lets start this lesson by considering the following:

If you study this lesson you will learn how to use the first conditional, if you learn the first conditional, your English will be better, if your English is better, you will be a student of SmartLanguageSolutions.com!

The above sentences are examples of the first conditional and as you can from the sentences the first conditional is used to express a possible condition and its possible result.

Like all conditionals the first conditional has two parts, the condition and its result.

The condition is formed by If + present simple, for example:

"If it rains..."
"If you study this lesson..."
and "If I see John..."

The result is formed by Will + the base of the verb:

"...I will stay at home"
"...you will learn how to use the first conditional"
"...I will tell him"

To complete the conditional sentences:

"If it rains, I will stay at home"
"If you study this lesson, you will learn how to use the first conditional"
"It I see John, I will tell him"


It is possible to use "shall", "can" or "may" instead of "will".

"If it rains, I shall stay at home"
"It I see John, I can tell him"
"If you leave now you may catch the bus"

When we use "may" in the result we are expressing a possibility while when we use "will" we are expressing a certainty.

Remember the first conditional is used to express a possible conditional and its possible result.

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