IF Clauses / IF Conditionals

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A conditional sentence has two clauses: Main clause and if clause.

Main Clause	If Clause
Alicia will tidy her room	if she has time.

First Conditional IF (Type 1)

Open Condition in present or future

If the weather is nice, we usually eat in the yard. (present)
(The weather might be nice or not, it's an open condition)

If the weather is nice tomorrow, we can eat in the yard. (future)
(The weather can be nice tomorrow or not? Open condition)
(We assume there is no weather forecast information available)

See First Conditional Details

Second Conditional IF (Type 2)

Unreal situation or very improbable Condition In the present or future

If it were our day off today, we would be barbecuing now. (present)
(It is not our day off, unreal condition, we are probably at work and talking to co-workers)


If it were our day off tomorrow, we would have a barbecue. (future)
(It isn't our day off tomorrow, unless we can change our schedule and take tomorrow off somehow, improbable situation)

See Second Conditional Details

Third Conditional IF (Type 3)

Unreal Situation in the Past

If the weather had been nice yesterday, we would have barbecued. (past)
(The weather was not nice, and we didn't barbecue, imaginary situation)

If it had been our day off yesterday, we would have had a barbecue.(past)
(It weren't our day off, we worked all day, unreal situation)

See Third Conditional Details ↑▲▲▲▲▲▲▲↑