First Conditional

By Elizabeth O’brien

Grammar games can add some needed zest to your English grammar instruction. Looking for a new game? Try diagramming sentences! Seriously, your students will think that it’s fun. There are a few ways that you can turn sentence diagramming into a classroom game.

1. Competitive Sentence Diagramming

Most students love a chance to get up to the whiteboard and show their skills. After teaching students some basic sentence diagramming, have them split up into teams. Write a sentence on the whiteboard. Students then work as a team to diagram the sentence. Teams earn points based on the accuracy of their diagram and the amount of time that it took them to complete the diagram.

One teacher I interviewed who teaches middle school English had this to say about competitive sentence diagramming:
“I have discovered that students LOVE to compete at sentence diagramming – even if they are not very good at it.”

He even started a sentence diagramming club since the kids loved it so much.

2. Diagramming Puzzles
I like to make little sentence diagramming puzzles for students to solve. First, think of a good sentence to diagram. Then, make clues for the diagram. Make your clues similar to the clues in a crossword puzzle. Next, the students have to use the clues to guess the sentence and diagram it. It’s great fun for all!

Here is an example:

Clue #1: This sentence is a famous slogan for Nike.
Clue #2: It is an imperative sentence. That means that it is giving a command.
Clue #3: It has only three words.
(Answer: “Just do it.”)

3. Diagram Famous Quotes

Who doesn’t love a good quote? Diagramming quotes is a great way to integrate other lessons into your English grammar class. You can use quotes from a literature book that your students are reading or from a famous person living during a period in history that you are studying. It’s fun to integrate topics. Write out the quote and have the students diagram it, or diagram it as a class.

Don’t Remember How to Diagram a Sentence?

Most likely, you have no idea how to diagram sentences. It’s okay. I have started a whole website devoted to teaching grammar with diagrams.

The site includes free lessons, exercises, and diagrams so you can keep one step ahead of your students!

Learn more about English grammar and sentence diagramming at http://www.english-grammar-revolution.com.

You’ll find diagramming puzzles, exercises, and lessons.

Check out the grammar games page.

Play games and have fun!

By Seonaid B

There are four kinds of conditional sentence in English.

1: The Zero Conditional:

We make it with: if + present simple, … present simple

For example: If you sit in the sun for too long, you get burned.

We use the zero conditional when we’re talking about a result that will always happen. If the first part of the sentence is true, than the second will always follow. If you sit in the sun for too long, you’ll always get burned – it’s a natural consequence.

Here are some more examples:

If you heat water to 100%, it boils.

If we eat too much, we put on weight.

If I eat peanuts, I get sick.

If you mix hydrogen and oxygen, you get water.

Things to note:

With the zero conditional we are talking in general, not about one particular instance.

We can usually replace the ‘if’ with ‘when’ without changing the meaning.

We can change the order of the two parts: it’s fine to say: You get water if you mix hydrogen and oxygen.

2: The First Conditional:

We make it with: if + present simple, … will + infinitive

For example: If it rains tomorrow, we’ll go to the cinema.

We use the first conditional to talk about things which might happen in the future. Of course, we can’t know exactly what will happen in the future, but this describes possible things that might come true.

Here are some more examples:

If I have enough money, I’ll buy a new dress.

If the train is delayed, we’ll be late.

If she doesn’t study, she’ll fail the exam.

If John keeps eating chocolate, he’ll be sick.

Things to note:

We can also change the order of the two parts in the first conditional:

I’ll buy a new dress if I have enough money.

3: The Second Conditional:

We make it with: if + past simple, … would + infinitive

For example: If I had a lot of money, I would travel around the world.

We use the second conditional in two situations:

1) to talk about things in the future that probably won’t happen. It could be that I’m imagining something I’d like that’s very unlikely.

For example:  If I won the lottery, I would buy a big house.

Another example: If I met George Clooney, I would marry him.

2) to talk about something in the present that is impossible, because the first part of the sentence isn’t true.

For example: If I had her number, I would call her (but I don’t have her number)

Another example: If I had enough time, I would help you.

Things to note:

With the verb ‘be’, when we use ‘I’ and ‘he / she / it’ after the ‘if’ and before the past simple, we often use ‘were’ and not ‘was’.

For example: If I were you, I wouldn’t take that job.

We can also swap the order in the second conditional: I would travel around the world if I had a lot of money.

4: The Third Conditional:

We make it with: if + past perfect, … would + have + past participle

For example: If I had gone to bed early, I would have caught the train.

We use the third conditional to talk about the past, and to describe a situation that didn’t happen, and to imagine the result of this situation.

Here are some more examples:

If she had studied, she would have passed the exam (but, really we know she didn’t study and so she didn’t pass)

If I hadn’t studied English, I wouldn’t have become a teacher (but I did study English).

If we’d woken up earlier, we wouldn’t have missed the plane.

If they’d gone to bed at ten, they wouldn’t be so tired today.

Things to note:

We can change the order with the third conditional too: I would have caught the train if I’d gone to bed early.

For practice exercises about conditionals go to: http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/conditional-exercises.html and for more information about the different kinds of conditionals see: http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/conditionals.html