English B1 · Conditionals
英語B1 トピック 6 4:37 英語ナレーション・英語＋中文字幕 burning-in
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Transcript
If-sentences imagine worlds, and English has three. The verbs step backwards to show how real the world is: present for facts, will for a real future, and the past form as a costume for an imagined world. If you heat ice, it melts. If it rains, we'll stay home. If I were a bird, I would fly to school. Chinese says ruguo and changes nothing; English changes the verbs to show reality. The past form is a costume, not a time.
The zero conditional is for the laws of the universe: if plus present simple, present simple. If you heat ice, it melts. If I drink coffee at night, I don't sleep. Facts, rules, habits, true every time. You can swap if for when here: when you heat ice, it melts. Same truth, same tense, and no will anywhere, because a law needs no future.
Pause and choose. If you heat ice, it melts. A law of the universe takes the present simple on both sides. Will melt would make it a prediction, but this is physics; the ice has never once negotiated.
The first conditional is the real future: if plus present simple, then will plus the base verb. If it rains tomorrow, we'll stay home; a real possibility with a real plan. The Chinese verbs never change; English splits the work: the if side takes the present simple, because if is a time gate and will cannot pass through, and the result side takes will. Other result doors work too: if you study, you're going to pass; if it's hot, we can swim.
Pause and choose. If it rains tomorrow, we'll stay home. If is a gate, and will cannot pass through it, so the present simple. Rained would imagine the rain away, and would rain parks the costume on the wrong side of the sentence.
The second conditional is the imagined world: if plus the past simple, then would plus the base verb. If I were a bird, I would fly to school, and I am not a bird; the past form is a costume, not a time. If I won the lottery, I would buy my teacher a holiday. And the famous advice formula: ruguo wo shi ni — if I were you, I would study more. Formal English prefers were for everyone, and one would per imagination: never if I would win.
Pause and choose. If I were you, I would bring an umbrella. An imagined world takes the past costume, and formal English prefers were for everyone. Was is common in speech, but the exam answer is were, and would be parks would on the wrong side of the imagination.
Choose the world honestly. If I have time, I'll help you: a real possibility; help may happen. If I had time, I'd help you: I don't have time, and we both know it. The second conditional is how English says a polite no, and the listener hears your reality in the verbs. The costume is not a time; ruguo wo you yi bai wan changes nothing in Chinese, but English changes the verb to show the world is unreal.
Build three worlds. Zero: if I don't sleep, I can't think; a law of the universe. First: if the weekend is sunny, we'll go cycling; a real plan for a real sky. Second: if I were the head teacher, I would cancel Mondays; unfortunately I am not, and Mondays know it. Then the advice swap: if I were you, I'd bring an umbrella. Your turn: advise me back.
Pause for four checks. If you heat ice, it melts: a law, the zero conditional. If it rains tomorrow, we'll stay home: a real future, the first. If I were you, I would study more: an imagined world, the second. And never if it will rain, never if I would win: will cannot pass the gate, and would stands on the result side only. Next topic: the passive, where the object takes the stage and the actor steps back.