Tag Archives: conditionals

When do we Use ‘Unless’ and ‘If not’? - FREE Printables

When do we Use ‘Unless’ and ‘If not’? – FREE Printables

Check out the free class on Facebook Live:


The conjunction unless means if not, for example:

I will talk to you on Monday     unless     my meeting runs late.

I will talk to you on Monday     if     my meeting doesn’t run late.

1. The unless clause becomes the ‘if’ clause; the tense remains the same

2. If positive, the main verb becomes negative; if negative, it becomes positive

3. The result clause remains the same; note: ‘if’ can be replaced by ‘as long as’

Unless can be in first or mid position in a sentence, and the clauses can be reversed. It often represents the idea:

UNLESS STH POSITIVE HAPPENS (+)   >   STH NEGATIVE WILL HAPPEN (-)

We can use unless to:

A. threaten / warn      Unless you lose weight, you risk developing diabetes.

B. justify      I can’t work any harder, unless I work 24 hours a day!

C. advise      Unless you enjoy being penniless, you should get a job.

D. change your mind      I’ll wear the blue jumper, unless this looks better?

E. add a last-minute thought      Clint and Danni aren’t coming – unless they find a babysitter.

Practice using UNLESS and IF NOT with our two free printable worksheets:


When do we Use ‘Unless’ and ‘If not’? 1

Direct download: https://purlandtraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/when-do-we-use-unless-1.pdf


When do we Use ‘Unless’ and ‘If not’? 2

Direct download: https://purlandtraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/when-do-we-use-unless-2.pdf


This material is completely free to use, so please feel free to share it widely!

If you have any feedback about these free resources, we’d love to hear from you! Please leave a comment or review below or on Facebook or Twitter.

Not Just WILL! – Guide to Future Forms in English

Not Just WILL! – Guide to Future Forms in English

So many students seem to learn only WILL and GOING TO for future and forget all the other future forms…

Future in English is a whole collection of different tenses and forms – not just WILL!

1. We need to select the most appropriate tense or form for what we want to communicate. If you only use WILL for every future situation, you will sound unnatural – apart from when it should be used. We use WILL for a number of very specific uses (below), rather than for discussing general future actions, like what you are doing tomorrow: use PRESENT CONTINUOUS or GOING TO instead.

2. Learners often overuse WILL, in some cases because their L1 has a particular future tense and they feel that WILL is equivalent to that. Try saying each example sentence below with WILL and you will see how unnatural many of them sound. There are NO dedicated future verbs in English so we use present and past forms instead, e.g. infinitive, present participle, past participle, and modal verbs like WILL and can.

3. Some learners only ever use WILL or GOING TO for future in English, but it is recommended to learn all the future forms, so you can always use the most appropriate one.

Download our free printable worksheets and revise the full list of tenses and forms:


Not Just WILL! – Guide to Future Forms in English

Direct download: https://purlandtraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/guide-to-future-forms-in-english.pdf


Not Just WILL! – Guide to Future Forms in English (Blank Version)

Direct download: https://purlandtraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/guide-to-future-forms-in-english-blank-version.pdf


Watch the recording of the free live class that I did on this topic:


This material is completely free to use, so please feel free to share it widely!

If you have any feedback about these free resources, we’d love to hear from you! Please leave a comment or review below or on Facebook or Twitter.