Spotlight - 13.2019

50 Spotlight 13/2019 THE GRAMMAR PAGE

THE GRAMMAR PAGE

“If ” and “unless”

ADRIAN DOFF presents and explains this key

point of grammar with notes on a short dialogue.

MEDIUM PLUS

Explanations

1. Andrei uses “if ” + present tense to talk about something that
   may happen.


2. Unless means “except if”. Andrei could also have said:
   “... e x c e p t i f y o u m e e t o n e b y c h a n c e ”.


3. Here, Andrei uses even if to lend emphasis. He doesn’t
   expect this to happen, and it wouldn’t change the situation
   (the bear still wouldn’t attack you).


4. If ... not often has the same meaning as unless. Andrei could
   also have said: “They’ll leave you alone, unless you do some-
   thing to make them angry.”


5. In conversation, we often use unless to add an afterthought,
   and we sometimes add “of course” at the end: “Let’s go for din-
   ner — unless you’ve already eaten, of course.”


6. As long as is similar in meaning to if. (= If you do this, you will
   be OK.)

Dialogue

Mike plans to go walking in the Carpathians, but he’s

heard that there are a lot of bears in the area. He asks his

friend Andrei about it.

Mike: Are bears dangerous?

Andrei: Not really. If^1 they hear you, they’ll keep out of

your way. You probably won’t even see a bear

— unless^2 you meet one by chance, and even if^3

you do, it normally won’t attack you.

Mike: What do you mean, “normally”?

Andrei: We l l , if you don’t^4 do anything to make bears

angry, they’ll leave you alone.

Mike: Is it safe to camp?

Andrei: Oh, yes. They’ll keep away from your tent —

unless^5 they smell food, of course^5.

Mike: So, I can’t take food with me, then?

Andrei: It’s better not to. But you should be OK as long

as^6 you keep it in sealed bags.

Mike: Hmm. OK.

Andrei: Don’t worry. Bears don’t usually attack people.

It’s dogs you should be worried about. They can

be really dangerous...

Remember!

All the examples in the dialogue are first conditional sentences,

using if or words with a similar meaning (unless, even if, if ...

not, as long as).

They are about the future (what will happen when Chris goes to

the Carpathians), but they use the present simple:

⋅ If they hear you, they’ll keep out of your way.

⋅ They’ll keep away, unless they smell food.

Beyond the basics

The phrases as long as and provided (that) have a similar mean-

ing to if. One normally uses them to talk about positive things.

So, you can say:

⋅ As long as it stays dry, we’ll have a barbecue.

⋅ Provided the roads are clear, we should get there in an hour.

Yo u cannot say:

⋅ As long as it rains, we’ll stay indoors.

⋅ Provided the roads are busy, we’ll be late.

Carpathians

[kA:(peITiEnz]

, Karpaten

sealed [si:&ld]

, fest verschlossen, dicht

You can practise what you’ve

learned here with our exercises in

Spotlight plus: spotlight-online.

de/spotlight-plus — unless your

conditional sentences are already

perfect, of course.