Hello everyone! How are you?

On the 12th of August we published this quiz on Facebook:

“My best friend is living in New Delhi now. If only she ___ here with me now.”

a. were
b. was
c. would be

Do you remember?

Well, a lot of people answered c. would be. The correct answer was a: “were”. So we thought that we would explain why “were” was the correct answer.

To do this, we will explain the Future Real Conditional and the Future Unreal Conditional. Are you ready? Great!

Future Real Conditional

If / When ___ Simple Present ___, ___ Simple Future ___

Example: “If I go to the cinema tonight, I will buy some popcorn”

The Future Real Conditional describes what you think you will do in a specific situation in the future. However, you do not know what will happen in the future, you are imagining what will happen. It is called “Real” because it is possible that the action might happen in the future.

Let’s look at some examples:

- If I go to my boss’s flat for supper tomorrow evening, I will take a bottle of good wine.
I am still not sure if I will go to his house or not.

- If I have a day off from work, I am going to go to the beach.
I have to wait until I have a day off.

- If it is sunny, she is going to go sunbathing.
It depends whether it’s sunny.

-  I am going to read if there is nothing on TV.
It depends on the TV schedule.-  A: What are you going to do if it rains?

B: I am going to stay at home.

Future Unreal Conditional

There are 3 types of future unreal conditional.

1. If __ Simple Past __, __ would + verb __

Example: If I had a holiday next month, I would visit my friend in LA.

2. If __ were + present participle __, __ would be + present participle __

Example: If I were not eating at a friend’s house on Tuesday, I would eat with you.

3. If __ were going to + verb __, __ would be + present participle __

Example: If I were not going to eat at a friend’s house on Tuesday, I would eat with you.

For more detailed information on the types of conditional, visit the English Page. It’s a fantastic source of grammar. Another great place to learn more is watching the following video. The teacher explains the future tenses in a very easy, straightforward way:

So, do you understand the why we say “My best friend is living in New Delhi now. If only she were here with me now”?

Please let us know if you have questions about the Future Conditional tenses.

Have a great day and keep up the good work practicing English!

En ABA English hemos preparado un gadget para bloggers y webmasters que quieran incorporar un test de nivel de inglés en su blog o página web.

La imagen del test es personalizable y no lleva marca. Para incluir el gadget puedes seguir las instrucciones en: http://www.abaenglish.com/gadgetlevel

Ayer una persona me decía por email que nuestro gadget es publicidad y cuánto pagamos por ello. Yo no diría que es publicidad, pero entiendo que algunos blogs con mucha calidad y muchas visitas cobren por incluir artículos, recomendaciones, material no propio. En estos casos, estamos encantados de poder llegar a un acuerdo, hacerles un regalo o buscar la forma de colaborar. Si ese es tu caso, ¡contacta con nosotros!