Whether / If

[Infographic provided by Grammar.net]

Real Conditionals: Poem "If" by Rudyard Kiplin

Rudyard Kiplin´s poem "If" was written for his son aged 12. It is a very famous poem which you can read below (click here for a bigger view) while listening to it magnificently recited by the English actor Sir Michael Caine

And here is an excerpt of the poem read by tennis players Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Do you notice the difference in pronunciation, rhythm and intonation between  the three readings (the one above and the two below)? What suggestions would you give Nadal and Federer to improve their readings?

Conditional Practice

Choose one of the images below and either answer its question or explain its message; make sure you use the correct verb tenses.

Think of an original answer and make sure your explanation is long enough to be easily understood. Start your answer with the first part of the conditional sentence: If I .....

What Would You Do If...?

What would you do if you walked into a murder in progress? Two guys asked themselves the same question and staged a murder-in-progress inside a New York City elevator. Hidden cameras recorded people's reactions. How would you react if you found yourself in a situation like this? Would you consider any of the following options?

• run
• get help
• call 911
• watch
• record video
• attack
• get revenge

Talking about the prank, what do you think about it? (In my opinion, it goes too far) 

I Wish / If Only

"I wish" and "If only" are the two grammar constructions we have been revising 

lately. They are frequent constructions in everyday life according to the number of examples I have found.

Click here to read an article which was published in The Guardian about a year ago called "Top five regrets of the dying." Here is the list of the regrets they refer to. 

Top five regrets of the dying: 1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. 2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. 3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. 4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. 5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

If you were asked to write a list like this, would you omit anything or include anything else?

Conditional Practice with Songs

There are quite a few entries related to Conditionals in this blog but every year I seem to find more and more examples of them in everyday life. For instance, here is a catchy song which includes a couple of conditional sentences. It is called The Way I Am, by Ingrid Michaelson, who is a New York-based indie pop singer-songwriter. Before you listen to the song, try to complete these sentences from the song - pay attention to the verb tenses and you will easily know what type of conditionals they are and, therefore, what verb tenses to use in the second part:

• If you were falling, .....
• If you are chilly,.....

Now you can watch the video and read they lyrics. It´s a short song so try to understand the lyrics and sing along for pronunciation practice

Do you want to see how much you remember? Watch the official music video of the song and try to sing along:

A Commercial

What would you do if... 

... you went to a restaurant for dinner and you were offered not to pay for it  but wash the dishes instead?

That was what sponge brand "Scotch-Brite" did as part of their publicity campaign in several restaurants around the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil.


Here´s some vocabulary that you may not know- check its meaning before watching the video or pause the video when the word comes out to really understand the message:

clout

the younger set

team up

target audience

low-cost

consumer

Pay attention to the pronunciation of the following word:

brite (= bright)

Ask your friends and family, what would they do?


And now, how could you explain the title of this commercial, Wash Your Bill?