Understanding Grammar: The First Conditional

Understanding Grammar: First Conditional 
Introduction

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack

Rowan: My name’s Rowan

Rich: and I’m Rich 

Rowan: And welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.

Jack: In the Premier Skills English podcast, we talk about football and help you with your English. 

Rowan: Don’t forget you can find the transcript for all our podcasts on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: In this week’s roleplay, we’re going to Liverpool for the weekend. The highlight, of course, will be watching Liverpool play at Anfield.

Jack: I think you mean watching Arsenal play at Anfield.

Rowan: Yes, we’re going to watch Liverpool play Arsenal at Anfield but there’s much more to see and do in Liverpool than watch the football.

Rich: We could go to the Beatles Museum and go down to the Albert Dock?

Rowan: Yes, we could but I have more energetic plans. I’m going to take you guys bungee jumping.

Jack: Bungee jumping? Jumping off a bridge for fun?

Rich: I’m not convinced either.

Rowan: I’m sure I can convince you to come along.

Jack: You’ll find out later how good Rowan is at persuading the two of us to go bungee jumping.

Rich: This week we’re using our roleplay to focus on grammar and more specifically we’re going to take a look at the first conditional and how it can be used to persuade and convince people as well as how it’s used more generally.

Rowan: And we’ll also look at a few words we can use to replace if in first conditional sentences.

Jack: Your task this week is to use the first conditional to persuade other listeners to do an extreme sport or another activity they may not have tried before.

Rich: If you are listening to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcast platform, you should also check out our website.

Rowan: On the Premier Skills English website you’ll also find 
the transcript, examples and activities to help you understand the language, and a task for you to complete.

Jack: You’ll also find a community of friendly listeners to interact with, in our comments section.
 
Rich: And that includes us - we’re always around to answer questions and join in the discussions.

Rowan: But if you listen on Apple Podcasts you can always write answers to our questions or any other comments in the review section.

Jack: Before we do the roleplay let’s look back at last week’s football phrase.

Last week’s Football Phrase 

Jack: If you didn’t hear our football phrase last week we’re going to give you one more chance to guess now. 

Rich: The phrase is to ******** *** ****. It means to protect the ball and let the ball go out of play without touching it. Defenders often ******** *** **** out of play for a goal kick when an attacker is moving towards them. 

Rowan: Max Alex from Vietnam had a good idea last week. He said that we should reveal the answers in the transcript in the original podcast when we release a new podcast. He can then go back and read and listen in context to help him revise our football phrases.

Jack: It is a good idea and we’ve just done it so from now on Max, and everyone else, can go back and find the answers to old football phrases in the transcript.

Rich: And if you don’t want to go back remember that we do reveal the answer to the previous week’s football phrase at the end of every podcast.

Rowan: Did anyone get it right last week?

Jack: Lots of people, yes, and a big congratulations to Daniel Baron from Colombia who was first with the right answer last week.

Rich: And well done to the following listeners who also got the right answer: Marco Zapien from Mexico, MoBeckham from Turkey, Max Alex from Vietnam, Alex from Ukraine, Jhon Baron Oliveros from Colombia, Emmanuel from France, and Elghoul from Algeria.

Rowan: And thanks to those of you who asked and answered football and general knowledge questions on the website as part of last week’s task. Feel free to write more questions in the comments section or a first question if you haven’t written one already.

Introduction to Roleplay

Jack: As we said earlier, in this week’s roleplay, we’re all going to Liverpool for the weekend.

Rich: We have lots of plans but the most exciting event is Liverpool against Arsenal at Anfield.

Rowan: Well, unless it’s a goalless draw then the bungee jumping that we’re doing after the match will be more exciting.

Jack: I’d forgotten about that. Exciting or terrifying? Anyway, you’re about to hear a roleplay where we talk about our plans for our weekend in Liverpool.

Rich: During the roleplay, we use lots of examples of the first conditional which we will take a look at in the language focus. 

Rowan: While you listen to the roleplay, we want you to answer a question:

Jack: Who do you think is most worried about going bungee jumping?

Roleplay 1 - In the car 

Rowan: It was such a good idea to make a weekend out of this trip to Liverpool.

Rich: Definitely. It’s much better than just going to the match and driving home at the final whistle.

Jack: Are we there yet?

Rowan: Very funny. We’ll be there in about an hour. We’ll have two hours before kick-off. Time for something to eat.

Rich: If we win today, we’ll go top of the league.

Jack: Yeah, yeah and if we win, we’ll go above you in the table.

Rowan: I don’t care if Liverpool or Arsenal win. It’s the bungee jumping I’m excited about.

Jack/Rich; Bungee jumping??

Rowan: Did I not mention it? I’ve booked us in at five o’clock. We were looking for something to do after the match and this looked perfect. They’ve got a big crane above the Mersey. It’s only a fifty-metre jump - I’ve done loads of jumps bigger than that.

Jack: Fifty metres straight into the River Mersey.

Rowan: You won’t go into the river unless the rope snaps! Haha!

Jack: What!?

Rowan: I’m pulling your leg, Jack. It’s safer than driving a car.

Rich: Watch where you’re going, Rowan?

Rowan: Very good. Seriously. I’ve done bungee jumping hundreds of times. What about you, Rich?

Rich: Oh yeah me too. Hundreds of times but this weekend I’m not so sure - I’ve hurt my knee.

Rowan: I’ll be really disappointed if you don’t come along. It will be great. You’re not scared, are you?

Rich: Scared? Frightened? Of course, not. I’m absolutely terrified of the idea.

Rowan: I tell you what. Why don’t you have a bet? If Arsenal don’t win, Jack will do the jump and if Liverpool don’t win then you have to do the jump, Rich.

Rich: I’m still not sure. What do you reckon, Jack?

Jack: I’m up for that - I don’t think I’m as scared as you anyway. I’ll probably do it even if you don’t.

Rich: Well, I’m quietly confident Liverpool will thrash Arsenal so … you’re on! When Liverpool win I’ll enjoy watching you jump from the safety of terra firma. Let’s shake on it.

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Rich: Before the roleplay, we asked you a question:

Jack: Who do you think is most worried about going bungee jumping?

Rowan: Well, I’d say it’s Rich. He was making up excuses and didn’t really want to make that bet with Jack although Jack says he wants to do it I’m still not sure.

Rich: Now, we want you to listen to our second roleplay and again we have a question for you.

Jack: Who wins the bet?

Roleplay 2 - AT THE MATCH

Rowan: That early goal for Liverpool must have settled your nerves, Rich?

Rich: Yes, Arsenal looked good for a while but I’m confident of the three points now.

Rowan: I wasn’t talking about the points I was talking about the bungee jumping!

Rich: Oh yeah, yes, definitely. No bungee jumping for me. Unless Arsenal score, you’ll be jumping off that crane later, Jack. 

Jack: Mmm. The weather’s not looking great for bungee jumping, is it?

Rich: I’m looking forward to seeing your face, Jack, as you fling yourself off that crane and plunge fifty metres to your ….

Jack: Get in! What an equaliser!!! What were you saying, Rich?

Rich: I can’t believe it. I think I might have to go home as soon as the match finishes. Something’s come up.

Rowan: So, it looks like you’re both doing the jump.

Jack: What do you mean? 

Rowan: Well, it’s a draw. One all. Neither team won so you’ve both got to jump. A bet’s a bet.

Jack: Oh come on! You’ve got to be joking.

Rich: I’ll do it as long as Jack goes first.

Jack: Fine. Like I said. I’m not scared at all.

Rowan: Come on let’s sort it all out when we get there. We’ll have to hurry in case it rains.

Rich: Are we not allowed to bungee in the rain? Oh, that would be a pity.

Language Focus

Rich: Before the roleplay, we asked you a question:

Jack: We asked you who won the bet.

Rowan: Well, the match finished in a draw so neither Jack nor Rich won the bet. They both have to come bungee jumping with me.

Rich: OK, we’re now going to move on to a bit of grammar. We’re going to look at the first conditional. There were lots of examples of the first conditional in our roleplays this week.

Jack: I’m sure you’ve come across the first conditional before. We generally use the first conditional to speak about things in the future that are possible and we think will or may happen.

Rich: We often use the first conditional to talk about possible plans, promises, warning, threats and for persuading people.

Rowan: At the beginning of the roleplay we used two examples of the first conditional. Rich said ‘If we win today, we’ll go top of the league’ and Jack said ‘if we win, we’ll go above you in the table’.

Rich: Both of these sentences are used to talk about future possibilities that might happen. Both of them are first conditionals.

Jack: We create these types of sentences by using if plus the present simple in the first clause or first part of the sentence and will plus the infinitive in the second clause - the second part of the sentence.

Rich: We can also reverse the two parts of the sentence without changing the meaning so we can say ‘If we win today, we’ll go top of the league’ or ‘We’ll go top of the league if we win today.’

Rowan: I’m sure you’ve seen these types of sentences before so we’re going to look at some more difficult examples.

Jack: It’s possible to replace ‘if’ and ‘will’ in first conditional sentences. Let’s start by looking at some words we use to replace if and how the meaning of a sentence might change.

Rich: We can use when to replace if in a first conditional sentence. In the roleplay, I said ‘when Liverpool win I’ll enjoy watching you jump from the safety of terra firma’.

Rowan: Terra firma means solid land in Latin and Rich is using when rather than if to be more certain - to be more sure.

Jack: Yes, we use when in first conditional sentences when we are more certain something will happen even if it is still just a possibility.

Rich: We replace if with some other words or phrases in the roleplay. Some of these were: unless, even if,  as soon as, as long as, and in case.

Rowan: Let’s start with unless. In the roleplay, I said to Jack You won’t go into the river unless the rope snaps!

Jack: We use unless to mean if not. Let’s look at that example again: You won’t go into the river unless the rope snaps. We can think of it in this way: You won’t go into the river if the rope doesn’t snap.

Rich: I told Jack that he will be doing the bungee jump alone unless Arsenal score a goal.

Rowan: Rich is saying that Jack will do the bungee jump alone if Arsenal don’t score.

Jack: The next phrase is even if. We can replace if with even if when we want to show contrast. In the roleplay, I said ‘I’ll probably do it even if you don’t’.

Rich: Here Jack is saying that if I don’t do the jump he will still do it. I think he’s emphasising the fact that he’s braver than me.

Rowan: Rich could have said something like ‘I won’t do the jump even if you pay me a million pounds’ to emphasise that he doesn’t want to do it.

Jack: The next two phrases we can use to replace if are ‘as long as’ and ‘as soon as’. Rich said ‘I’ll do the jump as long as Jack does the jump.

Rich: As long as means ‘on condition that’ or only if. We use it to say we will do something if something else happens or in this case if someone else does something first.

Rowan: In the roleplay, Rich said ‘I think I might have to go home as soon as the match finishes’.

Jack: We use as soon as to emphasise doing something immediately or straight away. Some other examples could be ‘I will call you as soon as I finish work’ or ‘I’ll be home as soon as I can’.

Rich: The last example of a phrase we used to replace if in a first conditional was ‘in case’. In the roleplay, Rowan said ‘We’ll have to hurry in case it rains’.

Jack: We use ‘in case’ to say there is a chance or a possibility of something happening. Here are another couple of examples: I’ll give you a key in case I’m not home and I need an umbrella in case it rains.

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Rowan: OK, we’ve looked at lots of words and phrases we can use to replace if in first conditional sentences and now we’re going to look at a few examples of when we can replace will in first conditional sentences.

Rich: You may have noticed that we didn’t use will plus the infinitive in all of our example sentences. 

Jack: Will can be replaced by other modal verbs in first conditional sentences. Here’s an example from the roleplay: if Liverpool don’t win then you have to do the jump.

Rowan: Here will is replaced by have to. We could also replace it with must if Liverpool don’t win then you must do the jump.

Rich: We can replace will with other modal verbs such as can, may, might, need to or should.

Jack: Rich said ‘I might have to go home as soon as the match finishes’.

Rowan: If you want to learn more about the language we’ve used in this podcast we have more exercises on the lesson page on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: Another idea is to listen to the roleplay section again - this time with the transcript - and see how we use the first conditional in context.

TASK

Rowan: In this week’s roleplay I used the first conditional to persuade and convince Rich and Jack to go bungee jumping.

Jack: In this week’s task, we want you to try to persuade and convince other listeners to try an extreme sport or to start doing something they probably don’t do at the moment.

Rich: It doesn’t have to be an extreme sport, it could be something that you think is good for people or something that is good for our planet.

Rowan: We want you to use the first conditional to do this. You could say things like ‘If you go bungee jumping, you’ll feel so free’ or ‘you’ll never know that you’re scared unless you give it a go. Those kinds of sentences.

Jack: Write all your answers in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website or Apple Podcasts if that’s where you listen to us.

Rich: And don’t forget to respond to other listeners and let them know what you think of their ideas.

Football Phrase

Rich: Have you got a football phrase for us, Rowan?

Rowan: I have. The phrase is ******** ***. This phrase is used when a team haven’t lost for a number of games in a row or succession. Aston Villa are on an ******** *** in the Premier League at the moment - they haven’t lost for seven games and are hoping to stretch that ******** *** to eight when they play Leicester next week.

Jack: Let’s see who can get it right. If you are still wondering what the answer was to last week’s football phrase it was to shepherd the ball - we often say to shepherd the ball out of play.

Rich: Right, that’s all we have time for this week! Don’t forget to write your answers to our questions and make a guess at our football phrase in the comments below. If you get it right, we’ll announce your name on next week’s show. 

Rowan: If you have a question for us about football or English you can email us at premierskills@britishcouncil.org

Jack: or you can leave your questions and comments on the website in the comments section or on our Facebook page.

Rich: or you could give us a rating and a fantastic review on Apple Podcasts.

Rowan: Bye for now and enjoy your football!