Conditional Sentences, Passive Voice, Modals, and More

Posted on Jan 29, 2025 in English

Conditionals

Zero Conditional: If/When/Unless + Present Simple – Present Simple/ modal + base form.
- If asteroids are tiny, they are hard to detect.
First Conditional: If/Unless + Present Simple – Future Simple/imperative/modal + base form.
- If the weather is good, the spaceship will take off tomorrow.
- If you need help, please contact us.
- If the car breaks down, we can’t go on holiday.
Second Conditional: If/Unless + Past Simple – would/could/might + base form.
- If an asteroid crashed into Earth, it would do a lot of damage.
- If he had a car, he could drive to work every day.
Third Conditional: If + Past Perfect Simple – (would/could/might) have + Past Participle.
- If he had felt well, he would have gone to work.
- If I had called my mother, she could have picked me up at the airport.

Wish/If only + Past Simple: Present situations that we would like to change.
- If only I had a new car.
Wish/If only + Past Perfect Simple: Regrets about past events.
Wish/If only + would/could + base form: Wishes about future situations.

Present Simple: Liz uses the computer every day / The computer is used by Liz every day.
Present Continuous: is using / is being used.
Past Simple: used / was used.
Past Continuous: was using / was being used.
Present Perfect Simple: has used / has been used.
Past Perfect Simple: had used / had been used.
Future Simple: will use / will be used.
Modals: should use / should be used.
Modal Perfects: may have used / may have been used.
Have to: has to use / has to be used.
Be going to: is going to use / is going to be used.

Modals	Uses
Can	Ability
	Request
	Possibility
Be able to	Ability
Be able to	Possibility
Can’t	Inability
	Prohibition
	Disbelief, deduction
Could	Past ability
	Polite request
	Polite suggestion
	Possibility
May / might	Possibility
May	Polite request, permission
Should / ought to	Advice, opinion
Need to	Necessity obligation
Have to	Necessity obligation
Must	Obligation, strong necessity
Must	Strong belief
Mustn’t	Prohibition
Don’t have to	Lack of obligation / necessity
Needn’t	Lack of obligation / necessity
Would	Formal request
Would	Offer

Modal Perfects	Uses
Could have	Something could have been done, but it was not done
Can’t / couldn’t have	Something could not have happened
May / might have	Assumption about a past event
Must have	Logical conclusion about a past event
Should / ought to have	Complaint about a past event and regret that what was expected did not happen
Shouldn’t have	Criticism of a past event that should not have happened
Would have	Willingness to do something in the past, but it was not possible due to external factors

Present Simple: The suspect cooperates with the Police / He said that the suspect cooperated with the Police.
Present Continuous: is cooperating / was cooperating.
Past Simple: cooperated / had cooperated.
Past Continuous: was cooperating / had been cooperating.
Present Perfect Simple: has cooperated / had cooperated.
Present Perfect Continuous: has been cooperating / had been cooperating.
Past Perfect Simple: had cooperated / had cooperated.
Past Perfect Continuous: had been cooperating / had been cooperating.
Future Simple: will cooperate / would cooperate.