English Prototypical Conditional Sentences Quiz

Conditional Sentences

• In a conditional sentence, the consequent is the clause that expresses the consequence of the stated condition.

Introducing the Antecedent

• The complementizer "if" is commonly used to introduce the antecedent in English conditional sentences.

Characteristics of the Consequent

• The consequent in a conditional sentence can be an independent clause, a dependent clause, or a phrase.

Formulating the Antecedent

• In certain condition clauses, "if" can be omitted, allowing the antecedent to be formulated without any conjunction.

Fields Related to Conditionals

• Linguistics, formal semantics, and philosophy of language are fields that have widely discussed conditionals.

Similar Sentence Structures

• Some linguists argue that concession sentences (e.g., "although") have the same underlying structure as conditionals.

Properties of the Consequent Clause

• In English, the consequent clause expressing the consequence of the stated condition can be a declarative clause, an imperative clause, or an exclamation clause.

Counterfactual Conditionals

• The term "counterfactual" refers to the use of past tense morphology to indicate that the speaker regards the antecedent as impossible or unlikely.
• In older dialects and more formal registers, "were" is often used instead of "was" when expressing counterfactual conditionals.

Types of Conditionals

• The "third conditional" uses the pluperfect instead of the past tense.

English Language Teaching

• In English language teaching, the term "zero conditional" is often used to refer to a conditional sentence that refers to general truths and facts.

Consequent Clause Types

• The consequent clause can be a declarative clause, an imperative clause, or an exclamation clause in English.

Conditional Perfect

• The "conditional perfect" is indicated by the use of the past perfect tense when expressing a hypothetical situation in the past.