In the past four High English quizzes we saw how conditionals play an important role in communication. We found that there are different types of conditionals such as probable, hypothetical, impossible and also zero conditionals. Each type of conditional sentence has a definite form following a particular tense form. The general principle guiding these types of sentence is the presence of a main clause and a subordinate clause almost always containing the ‘if’ word. We now look at another type of conditional sentence without the ‘if’ word in its subordinate clause.
In conditional sentences without the word 'if' we use words such as ‘as long as,’ ‘unless,’ ‘providing,’ ‘provided that,’ ‘should,’ ‘or’ and ‘otherwise.’ Generally, these sentences are formed on similar lines to other conditional sentences. In the case of ‘unless’ if the verb is in present simple in the ‘unless’ clause we use 'might', 'shall', 'may', 'should', 'can', 'will', 'could' and 'would' in the main clause. For instance: