Nobody can see the future, but English gives several ways to talk about it, and each one carries a slightly different feeling. "I will help you" is a promise made on the spot; "I am going to study medicine" is a plan decided long ago; "By 2030 I will have built my own house" is a finish line set in the years ahead. Pick the wrong one and a sentence sounds off, even when every word is spelled correctly.
The bigger idea in this unit is the "if" sentence, and there are three shapes of it, sorted by how likely the dream is: one for things that might really happen, one for daydreams about now, and one for regrets about the past that can never be undone. Get those three apart and you can say exactly how possible something is. Along the way this unit introduces Earth Hour, asks you to predict your own life, and has you write a "What if…" essay.
Earth Hour is held every year to encourage individuals, communities, households and businesses to turn off their lights for one hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. on the last Saturday in March, as a symbol of commitment to the planet. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide take part, crossing every barrier of race, religion, culture, generation and geography, which is what makes it a truly global celebration — a single thing that unites everyone.
Earth Hour's deeper aim is to show the actions that people, businesses and governments worldwide are taking to reduce their environmental impact, and to encourage others to join an interconnected global community searching for solutions to environmental challenges. Earth Hour is really a single switch flicked off by hundreds of millions of people at once — a tiny act made huge by everyone doing it together.
The passage is worth copying for its structure: the first paragraph gives the plain facts (what, when, who), and the second gives the purpose (why it matters, what it hopes to change). Whenever you write about an event or a campaign, split it the same way — facts first, then the point of it — and the reader is never confused about either.
Think of the future forms as different strengths of certainty and planning. Will is the spur-of-the-moment future — you decide as you speak ("the phone's ringing — I'll get it"), or you predict ("it will rain tomorrow"). Going to is the already-decided future — the plan was in your head before you opened your mouth ("I am going to study medicine"), or there is evidence right in front of you ("look at those black clouds, it's going to rain"). The present continuous is for a fixed arrangement with a time already pinned to it ("I am meeting the principal at 3 p.m.").
The quick test: did I plan this before now? If yes, use "going to"; if I am deciding right now, use "will"; if it is booked with a time, use the present continuous.
| Form | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| will / shall | on-the-spot decisions, predictions, promises, offers | I will help you. It will rain tomorrow. |
| going to | plans decided before now, evidence-based predictions | I am going to study medicine. Those clouds — it is going to rain. |
| present continuous | fixed arrangements with a time | I am meeting the principal at 3 p.m. |
| future perfect | finished by a point in the future | By 2030, I will have built my own house. |
The future perfect deserves special attention because the exam is fond of it: it says an action will already be complete by a future moment. Its tell-tale signal is the little word "by" — "by 2030", "by the time you arrive." Whenever you see "by + a future time", reach for will have + V3.
Type 1 is for a future that could really happen — there is a genuine chance, so you speak about it almost as fact. "If it rains, the match will be postponed" — rain is perfectly possible, so the consequence is spoken of plainly. The recipe is If + present simple, will + bare verb.
Here is the rule that trips everyone: even though both halves point to the future, the "if" half stays in the present. English never wants two "wills" in one conditional — the "will" lives only in the result half. Think of "if" as a doorway: you step through it in the present tense, and the future waits on the other side.
You can flip the two halves around — just drop the comma when "if" comes second: "The match will be postponed if it rains."
Type 2 is the daydream conditional, for things that are not true now and probably never will be. "If I had a million rupees, I would build a hospital" — but I do not have it, so this is pure imagination. To signal "this is only a dream", English pushes the verb one step into the past, even though the talk is about now. That backward step is the grammar's way of saying "not real". Recipe: If + past simple, would + bare verb.
So the past tense here is not about time at all — it is about distance from reality. The further back the verb steps, the less real the situation. That is the single idea that separates Type 2 from Type 1.
One oddity to memorise: in Type 2 we use were for everybody — "if I were you", "if he were here" — not "was". "If I were you…" is the fixed polite shape for giving advice.
Type 3 is the conditional of regret. It is for things that are now impossible because the moment has gone — what did not happen, but you wish it had. "If she had studied harder, she would have passed" — but she did not, and the exam is over; nothing can change it. If Type 2 stepped one pace back from reality, Type 3 steps two paces back, all the way into the past, because the door is now shut. Recipe: If + past perfect, would have + V3.
The feeling is always "too late": if only this had happened, that would have followed. The textbook's own example is a trader's regret — "if I had got something smaller, I would have exchanged it for honey" — said after the chance was already lost.
| Type | Feeling | If-clause | Main clause |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (possible) | might happen | present simple | will + verb |
| 2 (unlikely) | daydream about now | past simple | would + verb |
| 3 (impossible) | regret about the past | past perfect (had + V3) | would have + V3 |
One step back from reality is Type 2; two steps back is Type 3.
A model paragraph titled "By 2030" leans on the same little engine four times — "By 2030… I will have finished / built / learnt / travelled" — each pinned to the same future year so the paragraph holds together. It never drifts into ordinary "will" or the present tense; once you commit to the future perfect, you stay in it. The trick to sounding natural rather than robotic is to vary what each sentence is about — study, family, a skill, a dream trip — even while the grammar pattern repeats.
The essay "If I Had a Million Rupees" lives entirely inside Type 2, and that is the point — the topic is a daydream, so every consequence is a "would": I would settle, I would set aside, I would give. The structure is simple and strong: an opening that admits a silly first impulse (a phone, a cricket bat) before turning serious, then three concrete, costed uses — each one a small Type 2 conditional of its own ("if I bought five computers, fifty children would type…") — and a closing line that lifts the money into an idea rather than a sum. Keep the conditional consistent throughout, make each use specific and human, and finish on a thought.
| Task | Official word count |
|---|---|
| Future-predictions paragraph (Test 8) | 50–60 words — use "will" plus two sequencing words |
| Letter / data description (Test 14) | ~100 words — future plans for holidays, careers |
| "If I were…" essay (Test 16) | ~200 words — strict Type 2 conditionals throughout; hook → three changes → warm close |
Conditionals are a banker question — the paper tests at least one type almost every year, and they hide inside the connectives and verb-form passages too. The future perfect turns up wherever the word "by" meets a year. Sort the three "if" shapes and the future forms, and a whole cluster of marks opens up.
| Past-paper test | What was tested |
|---|---|
| 2017 Test 10 | Phrasal-verb fill-in includes futures (Mr Jayanath's day) |
| 2016 Test 9 | Connectives passage (Mahesh's plans for the future) |
| 2018 Test 10 | Word-form fill-in including future references |
| 2017 Test 13 | Poem "Under Ground" — predictions in image form |
| 2017 Test 14 (b) | Table on where 125 students plan to study after A/L — future plans |
| 2018 Test 16 (a) | Article on 'Public property belongs to all of us' — future-oriented essay |