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19
Describing situations of cause and effect
Let’s begin
Conditionals
Zero conditional
It is important that you read the following information. It will guide you during the
exercises you have to realize.
.
Conditionals are sentences that express causes and their results.
You can use conditional sentences with If to talk about causes and results.
If
is a conjunction used to say that one thing can, will or might happen or be true
depending on another thing happening or being true.
The two situations, causes and results, can come in any order. In written English
when the conditional part, the cause, comes frst, you put a comma between this part
and the result part.
Commas with Conditional Sentences
Use a comma when the
if
part of the sentence is at the beginning.
Example:
If I go to school, I have to get up early.
Don’t use a comma when the
if
part of the sentence is at the end.
Example:
I have to get up early if I go to school.
There are many different ways of making sentences with
if
. One of them is the
zero
conditional.
We use the
Zero conditional
to talk about things or to express ideas that are generally
or always true. They represent situations that are unchanging.
Because of their unchanging truth value, these conditional sentences normally take
a present simple tense in both parts of the sentence. They are especially frequent in
scientifc writing, since Science is concerned with absolute relationships.
Example:
If you mix oil with water, it oats.