English conditionals: zero, first, second and third with exercises

“If I get the promotion, I’ll buy a car.” “If I got the promotion, I’d buy a car.” “If I’d got the promotion back then, I’d have bought a car.”

Three almost identical sentences. In the first you are planning. In the second you are daydreaming. In the third you are mourning something you cannot get back.

English keeps these three moods apart. Each has its own if pattern, and together they are called conditionals. You will need the formulas. But first decide what kind of reality you are talking about: the usual, the possible, the imaginary or the one already lost.

The four types at a glance

Type	In plain words	Example	Formula
Zero	this always happens	coffee in the evening, no sleep	if + present simple, present simple
First	this may well happen	if I have time, I’ll call	if + present simple, will + infinitive
Second	it would be nice, but…	if I had money, I’d travel	if + past simple, would + infinitive
Third	too late to change	if I’d studied, I’d have passed	if + past perfect, would have + past participle

Name the type: a quick self-check

Four situations, four types. Choose the one that fits. The explanation opens as soon as you answer.

Zero and first already belong to A2, the second settles in at B1, and the third is B2 territory. If the last two items felt shaky, the CEFR level scale will show where you stand.

Zero conditional: when the world runs to schedule

No prophecy here. Zero describes facts, habits, rules and anything that happens every single time. That is why if can often become when without the meaning suffering.

• If I’m stressed, I eat chocolate.
• If the internet goes down, our meetings stop.

First conditional: if things work out

The first conditional covers plans, promises, warnings and arrangements: anything that may well happen.

• If it rains tomorrow, we’ll stay at home.
• If you don’t hurry, you’ll miss the train.

The trap almost everyone falls into

Ukrainian says «Якщо ти прийдеш», literally “if you will come”. The future after “if” sounds natural, so if you will come slips out on its own. English uses the present here, even though the sentence is about tomorrow.

The habit lasts: will after if still slips out at B1–B2, because the mother tongue keeps suggesting it. There is an exception, though, and it has nothing to do with time. When will means agreement or a polite request, it stays: If you will wait here, I’ll call the manager.

Second conditional: if I were a millionaire

The second conditional lives in the world of daydreams, unlikely events and advice.

• If we had more time, we’d travel more.
• If I were you, I’d ask for a higher salary.

Why a past tense when we mean now

This is where English plays a small joke on learners. The past simple in the second conditional does not mean the past. It means “this is imaginary”. Compare two sentences that differ only in the verb form:

Hence if I were with every subject: If I were you, I wouldn’t do that. In conversation you will also hear if I was. For exams, business letters and advice, choose were.

Third conditional: the time machine you do not have

The third conditional is about a past that can no longer change: missed chances, mistakes, regret. Everything people tend to think about at two in the morning.

• If you’d told me the truth, I would have helped you.
• If we had checked the contract, we wouldn’t have made that mistake.

The contraction I’d does double duty here. In if I’d left it stands for I had, while in I’d have helped it is I would. The word that follows tells you which. The past participle is the third form of the verb, and the irregular ones are collected in our table of English irregular verbs.

One evening, four types

Take a scene every office knows: you are staying late at work again. The event is the same. Only your attitude to it changes.

Where if breaks most often

Will after if. If I will see him, I’ll tell him sounds confident and wrong. The right version: If I see him, I’ll tell him.

Would in both halves. If I would have more money, I would travel has one would too many. It lives only in the result clause: If I had more money, I would travel.

Second instead of third. The meeting was yesterday, so this is the third. If I knew about the meeting yesterday, I would come does not work. The right version: If I had known about the meeting yesterday, I would have come.

When the past barges into the present

Hybrids like this are called mixed conditionals. Take them on once the four main types feel automatic.

Exercises by type, with answers

Here the type is named above each block. Choose the verb form the pattern demands. The explanation opens after every answer, so mistakes are easy to sort out one type at a time.

Zero conditional. Both halves in the present simple, and a third-person singular subject takes -s.

First conditional. The present after if, will in the main clause.

Second conditional. A past form after if, would in the main clause.

Third conditional. The past perfect after if, would have plus the past participle in the main clause.

Read your score block by block. Stumbled on zero or first? Go back to the simple forms. Only on second and third? That is where most learners stall. Another table will not help. Telling someone out loud about your own past decisions will.

Four ready-made openings for real conversation

Native speakers do not think “now for a third conditional”. They just talk. So forget the names and memorise four openings:

• If I have time, I’ll…
• If I were you, I’d…
• If I had more…, I’d…
• If I had known…, I would have…

Now finish each one with a thought of your own. Leave the invented John who keeps losing his keys out of it. Talk about your work, money, trips and decisions. That is how a formula moves from the textbook into speech.

You can get all sixteen right and still freeze on a simple “if I had known…” mid-conversation. Recognising a ready answer is easier than building the sentence yourself in two seconds. On our grammar course, conditionals go straight into your own situations, and the teacher corrects the form as you speak. The level test will show where to start.

What else people ask about conditionals