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English Conditionals (Extended)

An extended course on English conditionals for B1–C1, written for students and professionals in IT. It goes beyond the school four — zero / first / second / third — and builds on the Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman classification (factual, future-predictive and imaginative conditions), so you learn to choose a structure by meaning — fact, habit, implication, inference about the past, prediction, command, advice, hypothesis, the impossible — rather than plugging in «type two». Separate branches cover mixed conditionals, modals in the result clause, connectors other than if (unless, otherwise, provided that, as long as, only if, supposing, even if, whether or not) and the formal register with inversion (Should you need…, Had we known…). Every example and exercise comes from a developer’s working context: documentation and specifications, estimates, SLAs and contracts, code review, incident analysis, ADRs and RFCs, on-call and runbooks. The course ends with a practicum: a postmortem, a stakeholder email and a pull request comment, all written with conditionals.

No practice tracking: the units of this course carry no exercises, so the server cannot count your work — however much you study, completed units will stay at zero. It does not stop you learning from the material, and a course like this is closed by passing the exam.

Path through the course · 16 units

any order · units can be taken in any order you likeView: map · steps

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final

Exam

closed

The path in words
  • Stage 1 · Anatomy of a Conditional: Two Clauses, One Sentence — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~0.7 h
  • Stage 2 · Zero Conditional: The Language of Documentation — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~0.8 h
  • Stage 3 · First Conditional: Plans, Releases and Commitments — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~0.9 h
  • Stage 4 · Second Conditional: Design What-Ifs and Professional Distance — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~0.9 h
  • Stage 5 · Third Conditional: Writing the Postmortem — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~1 h
  • Stage 6 · Mixed Conditionals: Past Cause, Present Consequence — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~0.8 h
  • Stage 6 · unless and otherwise: Conditions Stated Negatively — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~0.7 h
  • Stage 6 · Inversion: Should you need anything, Had we known — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~0.8 h
  • Stage 6 · Optional: Conditionals in the Wild — Humour, Sarcasm and Fixed Phrases — can start; this unit has no exercises; optional; ~0.6 h
  • Stage 7 · Modals in the Result Clause: Calibrating What You Promise — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~1 h
  • Stage 7 · provided that, as long as, only if: The Language of Contracts — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~0.8 h
  • Stage 7 · I wish and if only: Regret in the Retrospective — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~0.7 h
  • Stage 8 · Factual Conditionals in Time: Habits, Implications, Inferences — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~0.8 h
  • Stage 8 · even if, whether or not, even though: Condition vs Concession — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~0.7 h
  • Stage 9 · Practicum: Postmortems, Estimates and Code Review — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~1.3 h
  • Stage 10 · Traps, Diagnostics and Exam Preparation — can start; this unit has no exercises; ~1 h

Programme · 16 units

1Anatomy of a Conditional: Two Clauses, One Sentence

Split any conditional sentence into its if-clause and its result clause

~0.7 hcan start
2Zero Conditional: The Language of Documentation

Use if + present, present to state how a system always behaves

~0.8 hcan start
3First Conditional: Plans, Releases and Commitments

Use if + present, will + infinitive to make a commitment or prediction about a real future possibility

~0.9 hcan start
4Second Conditional: Design What-Ifs and Professional Distance

Use if + past simple, would + infinitive for hypothetical and counterfactual present situations

~0.9 hcan start
5Third Conditional: Writing the Postmortem

Use if + past perfect, would have + past participle to describe what did not happen

~1 hcan start
6Mixed Conditionals: Past Cause, Present Consequence

Build a past-condition / present-result conditional and explain when it is required

~0.8 hcan start
7Modals in the Result Clause: Calibrating What You Promise

Rank will, should, can, may, might and could by the strength of the claim they make

~1 hcan start
8Factual Conditionals in Time: Habits, Implications, Inferences

Use past tense in both clauses to describe a habit or a rule that operated in the past

~0.8 hcan start

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