First Conditionals are a type of factual conditional. There is one other type of factual conditional: Zero Conditionals. First Conditionals are sometimes called "Real Conditionals" because they talk about real situations and conditions and what might happen. Zero Conditionals and First Conditionals are different because a Zero Conditional is always true, like a rule or law. The result of a Zero Conditional always follows.

However, in a First Conditional sentence you cannot be sure that the situation will happen. Look at this example:

If it rains, I will not go to the beach.

This is a First Conditional. I cannot be sure about the weather, so I do not know if this event (rain) will happen. But it can happen. Because it is possible, then I have to use a Real Conditional. This means we can imagine all possible events and talk about their outcomes and results. If you want to talk about things that are impossible and imaginary, you should use a counterfactual conditional (a Second Conditional, a Third Conditional or a Mixed Conditional).

How to make a real conditional

First Conditionals can be about conditions now or in the past, and can talk about results that might be in the past, present or future. There are many kinds of real conditional statement. They all are situations where the "If" part of the sentence is true or might be true.

These are the possible common combinations and an example. Please notice that we have given the grammatical names of the tenses, and also use "do" to show you clearly how to make the pattern.

"If" clause in the past

When the "If" clause of a real conditional is in the past tense, it means that I don't know if the condition happened, but if it did, it was before now. You might not have the information, or you might need to check if it really did happen. This means you can talk about things in the past that you are not sure about. They key idea is that it possibly happened, but you don't know.

So, in each case, you don't know that he did finish at 6 for sure, but you can talk about the result if he did. Remember that the result part of sentence (on the right in the table above), shows the focus time and action (based on the condition) of the sentence—this is shown in red below.

So, each sentence is said at a different time:

1. If he finished work at 6, he got home at 7.—This sentence is said anytime after 7 o'clock. It could be used the next day or later.
2. If he finshed work at 6, he is home now.—You can say this one the same night, and shortly after 7.
3. If he finished work at 6, he will be home soon.—You should say this one only between 6 and 7.

"If" clause in the present

When the "if" part of the sentence is in the present tense there are three cases:

• The sentence can talk about the future;
• Or the sentence can be talking about something happening now which may or may not be true;
• Or the sentence can talk about something happening and we will learn later if it is true.

Now if we think about when we can say these examples, we should again remember that the focus action of the sentence is the result, shown on the right in the table above. It can be past, present or future. But the difference here is that the time we say the sentence in this case is always the same. It is said while she is still working. The aim of each sentence is different:

1. If she is still working, she did not finish the report on time.—I don't know if she is working now for sure, but if she is, I want to say what happened so that she is still at work.
2. If she is still working, she is finishing the report.—Again, I don't know what she is doing for sure, but I want to say what I think she is doing at work.
3. If she is still working, she will miss the last train.—I don't know what she is doing now, but I want to think about what will happen if she is working.