Understanding Grammar - Second Conditional: Who do you support? | Premier League British Council Partnership

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Grammar: Second Conditional

Task: Imagine you are a Premier League footballer

Understanding Grammar - Second Conditional: Who do you support?

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich focus on grammar and take a look at the second conditional and Jack talks about the team he supports: Arsenal. Your task is to imagine you are a Premier League footballer and tell us the team you would play for and how your life would be different. You will do this by using the second conditional, of course! Don't forget to listen to the end of the podcast because we have a new football phrase for you to guess, too. Enjoy!

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Welcome - Understanding Grammar: Second Conditional (Who do you support?)

Introduction

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack

Rich: ...and I’m Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast

Jack: Where we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rich: We recommend that you listen to this podcast on the Premier Skills English website because that is where we have the transcript, language examples, activities, quizzes and a discussion page to help you understand everything we talk about.

Jack: However, if you’re listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you can leave answers to our questions in the review section. We do read all the reviews and would love to hear from you.

Rich: In this week’s podcast, we’re going to help you with a tricky bit of grammar. It’s called the second conditional.

Jack: There are different types of conditional sentence. A conditional sentence is made of two parts. One part of the sentence describes the condition or the situation - this part often uses the word ‘if’.

Rich: The other part of the sentence describes the result. Let’s look at an easy example. Listen:

Jack: If a team win, they get three points.

Rich: This is an example of what is often called the zero conditional and is often used for rules and facts and things that are generally true.

Jack: But in this podcast, we’re going to help you with the second conditional which is a bit more difficult. It is used to talk about imaginary situations. Listen to this dialogue:

Rich: I can’t believe we’re not winning. 0-0 at half-time.

Jack: I know! If we’d scored with that chance just before half-time, we would be 1-0 up. Ah well, we can still win this.

Rich: If I were the manager, I’d bring an extra striker on in the second half. We need to attack more.

Jack: Did you hear any conditional sentences. Don’t worry if you’re not sure because this is what we’re looking at in this podcast.

Rich: In last week’s podcast, we spoke about the football team I support and why I support them and in this week’s podcast Jack is going to do the same.

Jack: And the task we’re going to give you this week is to imagine yourself as a Premier League footballer. Who would you play for?

Rich: So, in this week’s podcast we’re going to help you with the second conditional, you’re going to learn about the team Jack supports and you’re going to use the second conditional to imagine yourself as a footballer.

Last week’s Football Phrase

Rich: But, before we look at all that, let’s look at last week’s football phrase. If you didn’t hear it last week we’ll give you one more chance to guess and give you the correct answer at the end of the show when we give you a new football phrase.

Jack: We had a great response last week and lots of correct answers.

Rich: That’s because it was easy, wasn’t it?

Jack: Maybe, but still worthwhile - phrasal verbs are never that easy. Who got it right then?

Rich: Well done to some of our regular football phrase getters - Liubomyr and Alex from Ukraine, Elghoul and Khaldoun83 from Algeria, Lakerwang from China, Rafael Robson from Brazil, Thenext75 from Italy and Romakisel from Russia.

Jack: And a big hello and well done to some of you who guessed correctly for the first time.

Rich: Hello to Anet from Singapore, Ronisanttos from Brazil, Tran from Vietnam, Jax-Qin from China, M Sesharao and Harsh G from India, and Harry Setiawan from Indonesia.

Jack: Here’s one more chance to guess my football phrase from last week. The phrase is **** *** and it means the start of a football match or to start something more generally. The phrase can be a noun or a phrasal verb. A new Premier League season has ****** ***. The first match of the season was Liverpool against Norwich City. **** *** was at eight o’ clock.

Rich: Have a think and we’ll give you the answer at the end of the show. I will also have a new football phrase for you to guess. This week it’s going to be a bit more difficult.

Jack: And if you can guess Rich’s football phrase and write it in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website, we will announce your name in next week’s show.

Introduction to roleplay

Rich: Last week Jack asked me about the football team I support and why. This week it’s Jack’s turn.

Jack: After our conversation, we’ll talk about some of the language we used and focus on the second conditional.

Rich: While you listen, we want you to answer a question. The question is:

Jack: Why does Jack support Arsenal?

Roleplay

Rich: I know you support Arsenal Jack but you’re not from London, are you?

Jack: I’m not, no. I lived in a few places in England as a kid - some in the north and some in the south.

Rich: So you probably support Arsenal because when you were growing up they were famous for very defensive play and grinding out 1-0 win after 1-0 win.

Jack: Not sure about that Rich and we all know when we think of Arsenal we think of fast and exciting attacking play.

Rich: OK, so why do you support Arsenal really? If I supported Arsenal, I’d probably not tell many people or maybe I’d tell people I’m a Spurs fan.

Jack: Yeah, yeah alright, You can stop now. You might not believe this but actually, it’s a family connection.

Rich: Don’t tell me, your brother is Dennis Bergkamp.

Jack: Not quite but not far off. My cousin was John Radford.

Rich: John Radford? Never heard of him.

Jack: That’s because you’re not an Arsenal fan but he was a famous player in Arsenal’s past in the 60s and 70s. He was a centre-forward and scored 150 goals for Arsenal. Only three players have scored more goals for Arsenal than him - two of them are Ian Wright and Thierry Henry so he’s not in bad company!

Rich: And he’s your cousin? If he was your cousin, you’d get free tickets all the time.

Jack: Well, he’s my dad’s cousin or second cousin. But in the UK, like in many countries more distant relatives - they are all called cousins, aren’t they?

Rich: It’s definitely a claim to fame! But you’ve never met him?

Jack: No, but I can remember my grandad being very proud of the family connection.

Rich: What would you do if you met him? If you got the chance to meet him at a big family reunion or something, what would you ask him about his football career?

Jack: I’d have loads of questions I’d ask him about his career in football and scoring for Arsenal, all kinds of things. I’d especially like asking him about football then and football now.

Rich: So give me three questions you’d ask your ‘cousin’ John Radford.

Jack: OK, well question one would be: If you were a footballer now, what would be different, what would you like what wouldn’t you like?

Rich: I have a few ideas. What would your second question be?

Jack: It would be: What was your favourite moment as a footballer?

Rich: And your last question?

Jack: If you could change one thing about football, what would you change?

Rich: Well, you never know. I’m sure you’ll get a chance to ask those questions someday.

Jack: Yes, I hope so.

Language Focus: Second Conditional

Rich: Did you get the answer to the question? Why does Jack support Arsenal?

Jack: The answer, of course, is my family connection to the club.

Rich: Right, in the roleplay, we used some examples of the second conditional. We’re now going to look at a few examples and talk about why and how we use the second conditional.

Jack: Let’s look at an example from the roleplay. Listen:

Rich: Example one: If he was your cousin, you’d get free tickets all the time.

Jack: OK, so we usually use the second conditional to talk about imaginary or unreal situations. These situations can be about the present or the future but it’s impossible they will happen or unlikely.

Rich: This first example is an example of something that is impossible to happen because John Radford is not really Jack’s cousin - he’s a more distant relative.

Jack: A more common example is to use the phrase ‘If I were you’. It’s impossible to be someone else but we use this phrase to imagine you are in the other person’s situation. We often use this phrase to give advice and recommendations.

Rich: A couple of common examples are: If I were you, I’d go and see a doctor or If I were you, I’d not say anything.

Jack: In these situations, Rich is not me. The conditional sentence is being used to give advice or recommendations.

Rich: The second conditional is also used to talk about things in the future that probably won’t happen.

Jack: Let’s listen to another example from the roleplay:

Rich: If you could change one thing about football, what would you change?

Jack: He probably won’t get the chance to change anything so we use the second conditional.

Rich: A more common example is: If you won the lottery, what would you buy?

Jack: Good question. If I won the lottery, I’d buy a new house and I’d definitely buy Arsenal football club and then I’d buy all the best players in the world and Arsenal would never ever lose another match!

Rich: Alright, calm down. It’s very unlikely that Jack will win the lottery so we don’t have to worry about Arsenal winning everything just yet.

Jack: OK, so that is why we use the second conditional but how do we create it?

Rich: Like all conditional sentences, it has two parts. A condition - the if clause and the main clause or the result if the if clause is true. That’s starting to sound a bit difficult. Can you give everyone an example?

Jack: Let’s look at that lottery sentence again: If you won the lottery, what would you buy? That sentence has two clauses the if clause - if you won the lottery, and the main clause - what would you buy. In the second conditional, when we’re talking about things that are not true or unlikely, we use the past simple in the if clause and then make a prediction in the main clause. Normally, we use would plus the infinitive, but you can use other modal verbs such as could or might as well.

Rich: We have some more second conditional examples and activities on the podcast page on the Premier Skills English website.

Task

Jack: Your task this week is to imagine life as a Premier League footballer and answer a few questions using the second conditional.

Rich: We’ve got three questions for you.

Jack: Question one: If you were a Premier League footballer, which club would you play for and why?

Rich: Question two: If you were a Premier League footballer, which position would you play and why?

Jack: Question three: If you were a Premier League footballer, what three things would be most different to your life now?

Rich: Right, OK, remember to try to use the second conditional in all your answers.

Jack: Write all your answers at the bottom of the page for this podcast on the Premier Skills English website.

Football Phrase

Rich: OK, it’s time for this week’s football phrase.

Jack: It’s your turn this week Rich. I got lots of answers to my football phrase this week.

Rich: I know, I know but your phrases aren’t that difficult, are they? I like to get lots of people to think about the phrase but they might not all get the right answer. Remember, if you’re not sure you can still make a guess and write your answers on the website.

Jack: OK, we all know that you like to explain more unusual football phrases. Let’s hear this week’s!

Rich: Right. This week’s phrase is ‘*** ********* *********’. This phrase, I think, was first used by the media to describe Alex Ferguson and how he would shout at his Manchester Utd players if they were not playing well. As far as I know, ‘*** ********* *********’ is usually given by the manager at half-time in order to make the players work harder in the second half.

Jack: I think a clue is needed here. Right, the phrase uses a thing you might use to dry your hair after a bath or shower and another word that a doctor or physio gives you to make you feel better or recover from injury.

Rich: I think you always help a little too much. Let’s see who gets it right. Write your answers in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website and we’ll announce your name on next week’s show.

Jack: Before we forget we need to give you the answer to last week’s football phrase. The answer was the phrasal verb to kick off or the noun kick-off.

Rich: Right, that’s all we have time for this week. Bye for now and enjoy your football!

How much did you understand?

In the podcast, Rich and Jack used some words and phrases that might be new for you. Do you know the words in bold?

Arsenal were famous for defensive play and grinding out 1-0 win after 1-0 win.

Only three players have scored more goals for Arsenal than John Radford - two of them are Ian Wright and Thierry Henry so he’s not in bad company!

Well, he’s my dad’s cousin or second cousin. But in the UK, like in many countries, more distant relatives - they are all called cousins, aren’t they?

It’s definitely a claim to fame!

I can remember my grandad being very proud of the family connection.

All of these phrases were in the roleplay. Listen to the roleplay again and read the transcript. Listen for the phrases in bold. If you're not sure what they mean, ask us a question in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

SECOND CONDITIONAL: If Jack had a car, we're sure this would be the one! Does he have a car?

Conditionals

In this week's podcast, Jack and Rich focussed on the second conditional. Before we look at the second conditional, let's look at some key points about conditional sentences.

Form

All conditional sentences have two parts:

A condition which is the if clause
A main clause which is the result if the if clause is true

Look at these simple examples:

If a team win, they get three points.

If you heat ice, it melts.

If it rains tomorrow, we will go to the cinema.

If we win tomorrow, we'll be top of the table.

If I won the lottery, I would buy a football club.

If I could go anywhere on holiday, I'd go to Australia.

All conditional sentences can be reversed so the above examples can also look like this:

A team get three points if they win.

I would buy a football club if I won the lottery.

Note: When we use the if clause at the beginning of a sentence we use a comma to separate the two clauses but when the if clause is the second clause in the sentence there is no comma.

Types of Conditionals

There are different types of conditional sentences. We used three types in the examples above. Let's look at the three we used.

Zero Conditional

We use the zero conditional to talk about things that are generally true, especially for laws, rules and facts. The examples from above are:

If a team win, they get three points.

If you heat ice, it melts.

The structure is: if or when + present simple + present simple in the main clause

ZERO CONDITIONAL: If a team win a cup final, they lift the trophy.

First Conditional

We use the first conditional when we talk about future situations we believe are real or possible. The examples from above are:

If it rains tomorrow, we will go to the cinema.

If we win tomorrow, we'll be top of the table.

The structure is usually: if or when + present simple + will + infinitive in the main clause

It is also often possible to use the first conditional with 'unless', 'as long as', 'as soon as' or 'in case' instead of if.

FIRST CONDITIONAL: You might be happy now but if your team lose, you will be sad.

We'll score as soon as we have a shot on target. Their goalkepper is rubbish!
I'll nevver go to Old Trafford unless City are playing there.
We've got an extra stiker on the bench in case we need one later in the match.
I don't mind losing as long as the team tries its best.

You can find out more about conditional sentences with these phrases and on our Learn English website.

Second Conditional

We use the second conditional when we’re talking about things that are not true, impossible or unlikely. It can be used to talk about things in the present or the future. The examples from above are:

If I won the lottery, I would buy a football club.

If I could go anywhere on holiday, I'd go to Australia.

The structure is usually the past simple in the if clause and then we make a prediction in the main clause by using would + the infinitive. You can use other modal verbs such as could or might as well.

The second conditional is often used for advice and recommendations by using the phrase 'if I were you':

If I were you, I'd go and see a doctor.

I'd try to do more exercise if I were you.

I'd go to that new Indian restaurant if I were you - it's fantastic!

SECOND CONDITIONAL: If Jack collected something, he would collect Arsenal badges. Does he collect anything?

You can find many practice activities about conditional sentences on our Learn English website.

If I was a Premier League footballer, I would ...

SECOND CONDITIONAL: What would you do if you were a Premier League footballer?

Quiz

In this podcast, Jack spoke about a distant relative that used to play for Arsenal and the things he would like to ask him.

We want you to imagine that you're a Premier League footballer and answer these three questions:

If you could be a Premier League footballer, who would you play for and why?
If you were a Premier League footballer, which position would you play and why?
If you were a Premier League footballer, what three things would be most different to your life now?

Try to use the second conditional in your answers.

Write your answers in the comments section below and don't forget to make a guess at this week's football phrase!