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English Conditionals (Extended)

An extended course on English conditionals for B1–C1, written for students and professionals in IT. It goes beyond the school four — zero / first / second / third — and builds on the Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman classification (factual, future-predictive and imaginative conditions), so you learn to choose a structure by meaning — fact, habit, implication, inference about the past, prediction, command, advice, hypothesis, the impossible — rather than plugging in «type two». Separate branches cover mixed conditionals, modals in the result clause, connectors other than if (unless, otherwise, provided that, as long as, only if, supposing, even if, whether or not) and the formal register with inversion (Should you need…, Had we known…). Every example and exercise comes from a developer’s working context: documentation and specifications, estimates, SLAs and contracts, code review, incident analysis, ADRs and RFCs, on-call and runbooks. The course ends with a practicum: a postmortem, a stakeholder email and a pull request comment, all written with conditionals.

Explanations are in your language: your assistant gives them.

  • Teaches: English
  • Material: Russian
  • Exam: English — taken on the site, not translated
How it works

Your assistant takes the course material from our server and leads the lesson in your language.

Your assistant explains in your language, but examples, samples and the names of what is being explained stay as the course has them: translating them would lose the subject.

The exam is taken on the site, without an assistant, in the language being taught. Exam questions are not translated: this is decided for every course.

How to connect an assistant

Path through the course

· 16 units

the order is free · the steps below are the order the author suggests, not a conditionView: map · steps

  1. Stage 1

    ~0.9 h

  2. Stage 2

    ~1.1 h

  3. Stage 3

    ~1.2 h

  4. Stage 4

    ~1.2 h

  5. Stage 5

    ~1.4 h

  6. Stage 6

    ~3.9 h

    by the author’s design, after “Third Conditional: Writing the Postmortem”

  7. Stage 7

    ~3.6 h

  8. Stage 8

    ~2.1 h

  9. Stage 9

    ~1.5 h

    • 14 · практикум · by the author’s design, after 2 of these: “Factual Conditionals in Time: Habits, Implications, Inferences”, “even if, whether or not, even though: Condition vs Concession”, “I wish and if only: Regret in the Retrospective”

      Practicum: Postmortems, Estimates and Code Review

      ~1.5 h

  10. Stage 10

    ~1.2 h

  11. Exam

    closed · enrol on the course

    • final · in the browser, without the assistant

      Exam

The path in words
  • Stage 1 · Anatomy of a Conditional: Two Clauses, One Sentence — ~0.9 h
  • Stage 2 · Zero Conditional: The Language of Documentation — by the author’s design, after “Anatomy of a Conditional: Two Clauses, One Sentence”; ~1.1 h
  • Stage 3 · First Conditional: Plans, Releases and Commitments — by the author’s design, after “Zero Conditional: The Language of Documentation”; ~1.2 h
  • Stage 4 · Second Conditional: Design What-Ifs and Professional Distance — by the author’s design, after “First Conditional: Plans, Releases and Commitments”; ~1.2 h
  • Stage 5 · Third Conditional: Writing the Postmortem — by the author’s design, after “Second Conditional: Design What-Ifs and Professional Distance”; ~1.4 h
  • Stage 6 · Mixed Conditionals: Past Cause, Present Consequence — by the author’s design, after “Third Conditional: Writing the Postmortem”; ~1.1 h
  • Stage 6 · unless and otherwise: Conditions Stated Negatively — by the author’s design, after “Third Conditional: Writing the Postmortem”; ~1 h
  • Stage 6 · Inversion, were to, but for: The Formal Register — by the author’s design, after “Third Conditional: Writing the Postmortem”; ~1.1 h
  • Stage 6 · Optional: Conditionals in the Wild — Humour, Sarcasm and Fixed Phrases — by the author’s design, after “Third Conditional: Writing the Postmortem”; optional; ~0.7 h
  • Stage 7 · Modals in the Result Clause: Calibrating What You Promise — by the author’s design, after “Mixed Conditionals: Past Cause, Present Consequence”; ~1.3 h
  • Stage 7 · provided that, as long as, only if, in case: The Language of Contracts — by the author’s design, after “unless and otherwise: Conditions Stated Negatively”; ~1.2 h
  • Stage 7 · I wish and if only: Regret in the Retrospective — by the author’s design, after “Inversion, were to, but for: The Formal Register”; ~1.1 h
  • Stage 8 · Factual Conditionals in Time: Habits, Implications, Inferences — by the author’s design, after “Modals in the Result Clause: Calibrating What You Promise”; ~1.1 h
  • Stage 8 · even if, whether or not, even though: Condition vs Concession — by the author’s design, after “provided that, as long as, only if, in case: The Language of Contracts”; ~1 h
  • Stage 9 · Practicum: Postmortems, Estimates and Code Review — by the author’s design, after 2 of these: “Factual Conditionals in Time: Habits, Implications, Inferences”, “even if, whether or not, even though: Condition vs Concession”, “I wish and if only: Regret in the Retrospective”; ~1.5 h
  • Stage 10 · Traps, Diagnostics and Exam Preparation — by the author’s design, after “Practicum: Postmortems, Estimates and Code Review”; ~1.2 h

Programme · 16 units

1Anatomy of a Conditional: Two Clauses, One Sentence

Split any conditional sentence into the if-clause and the main clause

~0.9 h
2Zero Conditional: The Language of Documentation

Build if + present, present to describe how a system always behaves

~1.1 h
3First Conditional: Plans, Releases and Commitments

Build if + present, will + infinitive for a commitment or a prediction about the real future

~1.2 h
4Second Conditional: Design What-Ifs and Professional Distance

Build if + past simple, would + infinitive for imagined and unreal situations in the present

~1.2 h
5Third Conditional: Writing the Postmortem

Build if + past perfect, would have + participle to describe what did not happen

~1.4 h
6Mixed Conditionals: Past Cause, Present Consequence

Build mixed type A (condition then, consequence now) and explain when it is required

~1.1 h
7Modals in the Result Clause: Calibrating What You Promise

Rank will, should, may, might and could by the strength of the claim and set can apart from them

~1.3 h
8Factual Conditionals in Time: Habits, Implications, Inferences

Describe a habit or a rule in the past: if + past simple in both clauses, with a time frame

~1.1 h
9unless and otherwise: Conditions Stated Negatively

Use unless in place of if … not in ordinary conditions, without a double negative

~1 h
10provided that, as long as, only if, in case: The Language of Contracts

Use provided that and as long as to attach an explicit or an ongoing condition to a commitment

~1.2 h
11even if, whether or not, even though: Condition vs Concession

Tell a condition from a concession with the two-values test

~1 h
12Inversion, were to, but for: The Formal Register

Turn the first, second and third types into inversion without if: Should you…, Were we to…, Had we…

~1.1 h
13I wish and if only: Regret in the Retrospective

Use I wish + past simple for what is true now and what you would like to change

~1.1 h
14Practicum: Postmortems, Estimates and Code Review

Write a blameless postmortem section with the third, mixed and concessive types

~1.5 h
15Traps, Diagnostics and Exam Preparation

Name eleven recurring errors in conditional sentences and the Russian habits they grow from

~1.2 h
16Optional: Conditionals in the Wild — Humour, Sarcasm and Fixed Phrases

Recognise the fixed conditional phrases of English-speaking engineering culture and their close Russian counterparts

~0.7 h