ESL worksheets and activities: Conditionals

Resource centre - First and second conditional - Likely or Unlikely?

Download and print a free PDF version of this activity to use in the classroom with accompanying teacher notes.

Aim	To present the difference between the first and second conditionals
Activity	Students decide if situations are likely or unlikely to happen, and use these situations to form first and second conditional sentences
Organisation	Pair work
Preparation	Make enough copies of the worksheet for the number of students in your class
What do I do?	1 Divide the board into three columns entitled SITUATION, RESULT and LIKELY/UNLIKELY. Write the situations in the SITUATION column. 2 Divide students into pairs and ask them to decide if each situation is likely or unlikely to happen. 3 Get feedback from different pairs and add likely or unlikely to the LIKELY/UNLIKELY column. 4 Now ask pairs to imagine what they would do in each situation. Don't worry about correct use of conditionals at this point. 5 Get feedback from different pairs and add some examples to the RESULT column. 6 Now ask if anyone can make a conditional sentence using one of the likely situations and its result and one of the unlikely situations and its result. 7 When the student uses the wrong form, reveal the correct structures. The comparison on the board allows you to show students that the only difference between the two sentences is that one is likely and one is unlikely to happen. 8 Ask pairs to make conditional sentences with the remaining examples