1st conditional is used for talking about possibilities in the present or in the future. It’s pretty similar to what we have in Russian with one key difference: in Russian, we use future in both parts of the sentence (Если я буду свободен, я тебе помогу), but in English we use present after If, even when we are talking about the future.
If + present, will/won’t + base verb
If I am free, I’ll help you
If she gives me her car, I won’t take a bus
We can also switch things around:
Will/won’t + base verb, If + present
I won’t buy a new bike if you give me your old one.
It will be great if the bus comes on time.
2nd conditional is used for talking about unreal situations in the present or in the future. When we say unreal, we don’t always mean impossible — just something that isn’t real right now.
For example: we have one car. Is it possible for us to have two cars? Sure! Do we have 2 cars now? No. But: If we had 2 cars, we would drive to work separately. We also have the same kind of sentence in Russian: Если бы у нас было две машины, мы бы ездили на работу по отдельности.
If + past, would/wouldn’t + base verb
If we lived in an apartment, it would be difficult to walk Jackie.
If Jackie was a small dog, we would be able to take her on a plane with us.
We can also switch things around:
Would/wouldn’t + base verb, If + past
We wouldn’t need a car if we lived in New York.
You would feel better if you took some medicine.
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