Sorry, but if he comes, I go: teaching conditionals

David Maule

This article looks at the rather restricted selection of conditional sentences which tends to be presented to students. It cites one case of the damage to a students natural development which this might cause and, on the basis of a fairly small sample of the language in use, points to the limited application of these structures. The article also indicates a whole area of meaning which is more or less ignored by current coursebooks and pedagogic grammars.

Introduction In one of my classes, the sentence at issue was Sorry, but if he comes, I go. As far as one student was concerned, there was no question of this sentence being even remotely well-formed. At the time we were doing a post-mortem on a session of Grammar monopoly from Grammar Games (Rinvolucri 1984:52), in which students have to decide whether certain given sentences are correct or wrong. Christine was French, intermediate in the sense of being advanced enough to know better, and her refusal to budge over this one was absolute.

She even took it home for her host family to mull over - the wife was a member of staff and I got the story the next morning - and only grudgingly gave in after all present had solemnly assured her of their willingness, indeed eagerness, to use such a construction given the appropriate circumstances.

The case becomes more intriguing when we consider that the sentence is more or less directly translatable into French. In fact, I would suspect that, rather than L1 interference, it was teacher interference that lay at the root of the problem and that Christine was suffering from over-exposure to the If it rains Ill stay in If it rained I would stay in If it had rained I would have stayed in that is all you know and all you need to know approach to conditionals.

A small sample I recently made a collection of 100 conditionals from television. The programmes watched were dictated purely by personal taste, and took in a wide range of offerings, scripted or otherwise, on all four U.K. channels.

There is no way that this sample can pretend to be representative of the language in use, but it may serve to make one simple point. Of the 100 sentences gathered, a staggering total of 7 conformed to the standard Type 1 If + Present Simple - will + verb pattern so beloved of coursebooks and pedagogic grammars. What was rather more significant was that 14 - exactly twice that number - were of the If + Present Simple + Present Simple pattern which had so disturbed the student mentioned above.

Aside from these two groups there were another 40 real non-past con- ditionals which made use of present tenses, the imperative, modals, be to, have to, have got to, going to, etc. A few examples may be useful here:

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Well, if you want them, vote for them. If theres a vacancy in the Tory leadership, Mr Heseltine would be a candidate. If youve got a tiny garden ... , then this is the plant for you. If you dont like the way Im handling it, you can take the appropriate steps. If the law is deficient, Parliament must change it.

...and if you can find, from a position of strength, the opportunity to negotiate with them, you should.

If youre thinking of throwing yourself away, throw yourself my way. If theyve busted my engine, Ill sue them. If he finds out, hes going to kill me. If itll make you feel better, we will call her in and question her tomorrow.

In teaching Type 1 conditionals, it seems to be a fairly common practice to favour the If + Present Simple + will + verb version, indeed to treat this almost as an abstract pure form, and consign the bulk of actual usage to some sort of dustbin reserved for second-class structures. In Christines case, the strategy would appear to have worked, in that she reacted to Sorry, but if he comes, I go as if it were entirely lacking respectability.

Classroom procedure Michael Lewis, in his recent book, The English Verb (Lewis 1986), makes the point that to indulge in artificial simplification is merely to store up trouble for the future. The damage is compounded when the simplified explanation is backed up by a few well-vetted examples, inconvenient exceptions being actively suppressed.

Mhen these two tendencies are unleashed on this area we run the risk of our students coming to believe that either the standard Type 1 structure is the only way of dealing with real non-past conditions, or, perhaps at a later stage, that it is the correct way, and that all other examples encountered are colloquial, or dialectal, or instances of sub-standard usage. Inciden- tally, it is worth noting that if the collection I made is in any way representa- tive, suppression of other structures would involve ruling out something like 90 per cent of real non-past conditionals.

A short cut or a dead One argument which I have heard in favour of the traditional approach is end? that, while the If + Present Simple - will + verb form may not be the only one

possible, it is certainly the most useful in that it can function as an acceptable substitute for various others. But any attempt at a statistical approach to this problem falls on the question of what exactly constitutes an acceptable substitute. Clearly, the sentence If you suffer from blocked sinuses, this is where it hurts is much more amenable to conversion than is if Valentines Day is so romantic, why is the heart used as a symbol of love?

We must also consider the fact that many examples of usage (20 per cent of real non-past occurrences in the sample) use an alternative to the present simple in the if- clause. Look, if you bleed, you wont do it over me has very little in common with the original: Look, if youre going to bleed, dont do it all over me.

I would suggest that this approach is of limited value. There are no real short cuts in language learning. If students are equipped only with If + Present Simple - will + verb, they will be able to function appropriately only in those situations where this structure is acceptable. The idea that one structure can be used for every situation - rather on the lines of an adjust- able spanner - seems to be based more on teacher convenience than on student need.

We might also consider whether giving students the idea - as this sort of

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approach inevitably must - that two distinct structures are interchange- able in all possible contexts doesnt downgrade the importance of context itself as well as placing severe limits on the students potential for effective communication.

It would seem to be both more efficient in terms of language learning, and more true to the language as it is used, to expose students to as many examples as possible of real non-past conditionals, involving the full range of possible combinations, rather than to try to place them in some sort of structural straitjacket.

In practical terms, this does, however, pose some difficulties. Domesti- cated language, tamed, trained, and classified according to our needs, can be readily found within the pages of the textbook or grammar. Appropriate specimens of the genuine variety are rather more difficult to track down. It took me 104 hours viewing to gather the 100 conditionals in the sample. Of these, 61 were of the real non-past variety. This works out at 5.8 per hour, or one every 10 minutes 32 seconds.

So the teacher who simply relied on exposing students to structural variation by running a cassette or a video would be faced with a great deal of waiting in return for very little. In a different medium, the same result would proceed from scanning of written texts. Those with unlimited time, energy, and perhaps a large enough budget to take in a video editing suite might consider making a special collection. For the rest of us, some form of compromise with undiluted realia is probably in order.

One possibility is shown below. As it stands, this is a fairly difficult exercise and would be most suitable for an advanced class. The sentences are all from the sample, and the variety of structural items is further complicated by clause order, negatives, questions, etc. The exercise could of course be made easier by eliminating these variations or by using specially written sentences, provided that the variety of structural items is maintained. It is not essential that the sentences are real, although it helps. The main point is that students brought up on the standard forms should accept that other varieties are in common use.

Find the Joker

The sentences below can be divided into three groups of four, with one extra sentence which does not fall into any group. Can you sort them out?

1 If its in the news, its in the News. 2 What would you do if you werent doing gymnastics now? 3 . . . if you can find one, and youve got room to grow it, then buy it. 4 Would you have put on a waterproofjacket if we had? 5 If its all the same to you, Ill settle down and listen to some real

music. 6 whereas if they had perhaps lived on to old age with their looks

going and all the rest, then the legend wouldnt have survived them. 7 Dont know, and if I did, I wouldnt tell you. 8 If you like swimming, theres a pool just down the road. 9 If Giles had been trampled to death by a camel, it would have broken

my heart. 10 You could probably do some damage if you were to, say, hit

somebody. 11 If youre going to reheat them, youve really got to cook them

through.

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120

12 I bet you wouldnt have said that if Sam had been losing. 13 I suppose Id be wasting my breath if I invited you to accompany me.

GROUP 1 Nos: - - - - GROUP 2 Nos: - - - - GROUP 3 Nos: - - - - JOKER No -

Using this exercise it should be possible to get over some basic ideas about the variety of structures tolerated by the three established types of conditionals, and also, as a bonus, the further notion that not all if sen- tences are conditional (cf. No 8, the Joker).

The slant of the teaching will of course depend on the amount of exposure the students have had to the traditional Types l-3 structures. The above exercise probably falls under the heading of shock treatment for the deluded. For students who can be caught earlier, one possible approach might be to dispense altogether with the idea of the conditional as a special form. I would suspect that most teachers tend not to allocate much space to similarly structured sentences which begin with assuming (that), but for, given that, provided (that), supposing, unless, when, etc. in their teaching of The Conditional. This does not seem to prevent students from learning to make use of them.

If-sentences can be introduced at a fairly early level in concert with other forms. For example, the interchange: Ive got toothache/You should see a dentist (structure: modal auxiliaries; function: giving unnecessary advice) can easily be extended to If shes got toothache, she should see a dentist. Examples do not need to be enumerated, the whole point being that real non-past conditionals are not sufficiently different from other structural combina- tions as to require treatment in isolation.

With what are traditionally known as Type 2 and Type 3 conditionals I found a much closer conformity to the standardized patterns (Type 2: If + Past Simple - would + verb, Type 3: If + Past Perfect - would have + past participle). However, it may be worth pointing out that the continuous forms of the tenses are also available and that various items-could, should, might, etc. - are possible in place of would.

A neglected area Aside from the examples dealt with above, which may be classified in terms of the established Types l-3 if we simply expand the structural definition, there was a significant group of sentences which resist inclusion. These are worth reproducing in full:

1 If you felt so strongly about it, why did you agree to do it? 2 If you had the blinks, you didnt go in to work.

(the blinks is a welders ailment) 3 Victor, if that was your attempt to win my favour. you just blew it. 4 If her fantasy didnt succeed, she died.

(in a discussion of Rimsky-Korsakovs Scheherzade) 5 If you didnt do that there, youd get cracks in the railing. 6 If you went in with a slight injury, hed wash it down and say, Now,

when you go home tonight, bathe that in water and washing soda. 7 If you didnt get a Queens Road tram, you had to change at Ash Street.

All of these are set in real past time and all of them involve a statement about a condition which used to prevail in the past. It is a curious aspect of

David Maule

the traditional approach that while we are quite happy to teach students to deal with a situation which didnt happen: If it had snowed, we would have stayed at home, we somehow draw the line at equipping them to deal with one which did: If it snowed, we stayed at home/would stay at home. In some ways this is comparable to teaching I go, I dont go, I didnt go but leaving out I went.

Incidentally, we might note the ambiguity of the would version, as reflected in numbers 5 and 6 above. While teaching students that If + past simple -- would + verb is used for unreal non-past conditions, we might also point out that it can also be used for real past time conditions. If I had time I would visit the museum could apply to either. Again, some stress on the importance of context might be useful here. One way of achieving this might be through a sorting exercise of this type:

In each group mark whether A or B can go before C.

A B

C

A

B

C

A

B

C

A B

C

A

B

C

Ive got to mark all these essays tonight. Its a pity. When I was in Stratford, I had to work very hard.

If I had time, I would go to the theatre.

Its got nothing to do with being frightened of flying. I just want a simple holiday at home. I had more money to spare before I got married.

If I wanted to go abroad, I would go.

Theres absolutely no chance of snow tomorrow. Thats why were going. Quite often in winter the school bus couldnt get through.

If it snowed, wed have to stay at home.

Theres no point in going on at me. My youngest son was always having trouble with his maths homework.

I would help him if I could.

He thought about teaching but decided to become a dentist. Im really glad. I dont think its possible he was a teacher, Inspector. Just look at his car.

If he was a teacher he wouldnt be able to afford a car like that.

The exercise is in fact somewhat devious, the answer being both A and B in every case. Students trained in traditional Type 2 conditionals should have no trouble joining A to C. However, they might not recognize the fact that the real past B sentences will also link up. The surprise of discovering this may perhaps help to clarify the idea that the past tense in English can have unreal non-past as well as real past reference. We can only sympath- ize with the student who, having perhaps grasped the fact that English has no future tense, has also to come to terms with the idea that the past tense is not used only for past time).

Although I did not come across one in my sample, it is also possible to have double-past time conditionals. For instance: If I had been silly, he had been stupid.

The situation seems rather complex and perhaps a diagram would be

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helpful at this point -I am not, incidentally, advocating that Figure 1 should be passed on to students.

NON-PAST PAST DOUBLE PAST 0

I 1

I 2

To move from the non-past real situation, either in terms of time or reality, requires a past marker of some description. This can be either a past tense or the past form of a modal auxiliary. To make a further step requires another marker. The perfect fulfils this function. In the diagram the number of markers required for each division of time or reality (UNREAL, PAST, etc.) appears as a large number. The total number required by each area (Real/Past, etc.) appears as a small number in the box. The actual markers as used in the sentences are italicized. The total number in each clause will be found to conform to the small numbers in the boxes. This diagram does not pretend to cover all possible instances, but may serve to clarify things a little.

One final complication is that it is quite possible to have a time-shift in the course of a sentence. Instances of these are comparatively rare, but might be puzzling to the student. The two that I found in the course of my survey were as follows:

... if you do know more about art... then ... what you were doing was unforgivable. If you dont want Gina here, why didnt you say so?

In both of these, the move is simply from real non-past time to real past, i.e. from top left to top centre on the diagram. Other combinations are of course possible.

In essence, the second sentence above is no more complicated than: I dont want Gina here but I didnt say so. If, as I strongly suspect, it would prove more puzzling to the average student, we might ponder over how much of this might be due to a lack of understanding of the meaning and how much to a vain attempt to fit it into a set of memorized categories.

Conclusion Although the traditional presentation of conditional sentences as belonging to one of three types is valid as far as it goes, it would seem to be deficient in two respects:

1 Too much emphasis on the idea that there is a standard structure for each type places unnecessary restraints on the students natural curiosity and communicative ability. This might even lead to the rejection of per- fectly valid alternative forms. In the case of Type 1 conditionals, the usual

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structure presented does not represent the bulk of usage and may not even be the most commonly used form.

2 Very little attention, if any, is paid to equipping the student with the ability to talk about conditions that used to apply in the past.

Received April 1987

References Lewis, M. 1986. The English Verb: An Exploration of

Structure and Meaning. Hove: Language Teaching Publications.

Rinvolucri, M. 1984. Grammar Games. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Appendix Summary of survey results Real non-past (Type 1) (61) Present Simple + Present Simple Present Simple + will + verb Present Simple + other modals + verb Present Simple + imperative others

Real past (7) Past Simple + Past Simple Past Simple + would Past Simple + had to

14 7

14 6

20

4 2 1

Real mixed time (non-past + past)

Unreal non-past (Type 2) (22) Past Simple + would + verb others

Unreal past (Type 3) (8)

2

19 3

Past Perfect + would have + verb 6 others 2

Total: 100

The author David Maule has worked in Sierra Leone, Turkey, and Yugoslavia and is now a lecturer in EFL/ESL at Stevenson College of Further Education, Edinburgh. Since 1983 he has lectured on Grammar and Com- munication at the British Council Summer School at Stirling University. He holds an MA in Linguistics and ELT from the University of Leeds.

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