I've been doing some reading on how to teach the conditional in English grammar and the material is confusing for me, let alone an ESL student. My main difficulty is with the 1st and 2nd conditional...
1st conditional: if + present simple, will - "If you study hard, you will pass the exam."
2nd conditional: if + past simple, would/could/might + verb base - "If I won the lottery, I would buy a mansion."
So I'm told that the 2nd conditional is only used for 'unreal' hypothetical situations that are unlikely to ever come true (e.g. winning the lottery). The lottery example got me thinking because the previous unit on the future tense used a similar sentence - "If I win the lottery, I will buy a mansion." And actually many native speakers do seem to use the 1st conditional with the "present simple" + "will" to talk about unreal situations. I do it too sometimes, though I don't exactly pay attention to my grammar when I talk!
How would you explain the confusion and what would you tell a student who can't tell the difference because these grammar "rules" are hardly observed in everyday speech?
1st conditional: if + present simple, will - "If you study hard, you will pass the exam."
2nd conditional: if + past simple, would/could/might + verb base - "If I won the lottery, I would buy a mansion."
So I'm told that the 2nd conditional is only used for 'unreal' hypothetical situations that are unlikely to ever come true (e.g. winning the lottery). The lottery example got me thinking because the previous unit on the future tense used a similar sentence - "If I win the lottery, I will buy a mansion." And actually many native speakers do seem to use the 1st conditional with the "present simple" + "will" to talk about unreal situations. I do it too sometimes, though I don't exactly pay attention to my grammar when I talk!
How would you explain the confusion and what would you tell a student who can't tell the difference because these grammar "rules" are hardly observed in everyday speech?