Conditionals And Reported Speech
Learn to report conditional sentences, preserving "if" and adapting tenses, a crucial skill taught at California's College of English Language, where expert instructors elevate your English proficiency.
Learn to report conditional sentences, preserving "if" and adapting tenses, a crucial skill taught at California's College of English Language, where expert instructors elevate your English proficiency.
Have you started learning conditionals? You probably fear you’ll make a lot of mistakes with all those complicated rules, right? And to make things even more complicated, there’s the reported speech. How can you report conditional sentences?
There are numerous English language schools and programs in California that can help you with all the doubts you may have. But to truly master the conditionals and other aspects of the English language, you should rely on as many reliable resources as possible. So, keep reading this article as we explain how if-clauses are changed in reported speech.
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“If” is a conjunction we use in indirect speech when we report yes/no questions.
Direct speech: Do you want to go to the cinema?
Indirect speech: He asked if I wanted to go to the cinema.
Also, if we want to report a conditional sentence, we’ll keep “if” in the reported speech too.
Direct speech: If it doesn’t rain, I’ll go for a walk.
Indirect speech: She said that if it didn’t rain, she’d go for a walk.
To see what tense and modal changes occur, let’s examine each type of conditional sentence separately.
The tense shift will occur only in instances when the condition is no longer valid. Otherwise, the tenses remain the same.
Mom: If dad gets angry, he always reads a newspaper in the living room and ignores everybody else.
If we need to report a first conditional sentence, the following changes might take place.
Luke: If we hurry up, we’ll catch the bus.
The above tense and modal shifting rules apply to the second conditional too. If the condition is still relevant, no changes occur. However, if it’s outdated, the past simple becomes the past perfect, and would becomes would + have + past participle.
Sofia: If I had more money, I would buy a new car.
When reporting third conditionals, there is no change in the verb form:
Tania: If I had seen him, I would have told him about the accident.
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