LestoEnglish: The First Conditional

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

The First Conditional

We use the First Conditional to talk about a real possibility in the future. We are thinking about a particular condition or situation in the future, and the result of this condition. There is a real possibility that this condition will happen.

IF	condition	result
	present simple	WILL + base verb
If	it rains	I will stay at home.

For example: It's morning and you plan to go to the park in the afternoon, but there are some clouds in the sky. Imagine that this afternoon it rains. What will you do? The answer, in this case, is staying at home.

We are thinking of a future condition. It isn't raining yet and you don't know what will happen this afternoon. We use WILL + base verb to talk about the possible future result.

We use the first conditional to talk about a possible given SITUATION and its FUTURE RESULT. It can be understood as a cause and effect situation.