Zero, 1st, 2nd and 3rd CONDITIONALS

The English Conditional

There are a number of structures in English that are called the conditionals which are used to talk about possible or imaginary situations. A "Condition" is a "situation or circumstance".

For example: If a certain condition is true, then a particular result happens.

There are four basic conditionals that we use in English.

• Zero Conditional
• First Conditional
• Second Conditional
• Third Conditional

There are some more conditionals formed by mixing some of these four. To learn more about these, see our glossary entry: English Conditionals.

Structure of Conditional Sentences

The structure of the conditionals is straightforward. There are two basic possibilities in terms of order in the sentence:

IF	Condition	Result
If	it rains,	we will get wet

or like this:

Result	IF	Condition
We will get wet	if	it rains.

Notice that we only use a comma in the first example.

Conditionals: Time and Probability Table

Probability	Conditional	Example	Time
Certain	zero conditional	If you heat water to 100 degrees celsius, it boils	any time
Likely	first conditional	If it rains, I will stay in.	future
Unlikely	second conditional	If I won the lottery, I would retire.	future
Impossible	second conditional	If I had the money, I would lend it to you	present
Impossible	third conditional	If I had seen him, I would have given him the message.	past

Read more at http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/english-conditionals-an-introduction.html#CA13WH3LRUlAxu5H.99