The First Conditional and The Second Conditional

The first conditional has the present simple after 'if', then the future simple in the other clause:

• if + present simple, ... will + infinitive

It's used to talk about things which might happen in the future. Of course, we can't know what will happen in the future, but this describes possible things, which could easily come true.

The second conditional uses the past simple after if, then 'would' and the infinitive:

• if + past simple, ...would + infinitive

(We can use 'were' instead of 'was' with 'I' and 'he/she/it'. This is mostly done in formal writing).

It has two uses.

First, we can use it to talk about things in the future that are probably not going to be true. Maybe I'm imagining some dream for example.

Second, we can use it to talk about something in the present which is impossible, because it's not true.