Dialogue 2
Gillian finds Lauren in the canteen at work and sits down next to her.
L
AUREN
: Hello, Gillian. Aren’t you having lunch?
G
ILLIAN
: No – I just wanted to ask: have you seen James today?
L
AUREN
: No, I don’t think so. Why?
G
ILLIAN
: I need to talk to him quite urgently about something.
If you see him, will you tell him to phone me?
L
AUREN
: I’ll certainly tell him if I see him. But listen . . . why
don’t you phone him yourself on his mobile?
G
ILLIAN
: If I knew his mobile number, I would.
L
AUREN
: Ah. [thinks for a moment]
. . . Wait a minute! What about his friends?
G
ILLIAN
: What about them?
L
AUREN

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Idiom
• I’d get everything sorted means ‘I’d solve all my problems’; get
something sorted (or sorted out) can also mean put right, put in

[C1] If I become world president, I’ll stop global warming
[C2] If I became world president, I’d stop global warming
The last pair of examples shows very clearly the difference between
C1 and C2 – If I become world president . . . could only be said by
someone who was in the running for the office, someone who had
put himself up for election; If I became world president . . ., on the
other hand, is what all the rest of us would say, because we don’t
expect it to happen to us.
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Be careful! It is wrong to use the conditional form would /’d
in the if-clause:
If he ate the cake, he’d be sick
not ‘If he’d eat the cake
’
If we left by eleven, we’d catch the last bus
not ‘If we’d leave
’
ƽ
Sometimes we can use conditionals to make suggestions – for
example, when Lauren says to Gillian If you phoned
one of James’s
friends, perhaps they could
tell you . . . Here the if-clause is just
there to suggest to Gillian that she does something, and in this
use of the conditional the rules about C1 and C2 are much looser
– all of the following variants are okay:
If you phone one of James’s friends, perhaps they can
tell you . . .
If you phone
one of James’s friends, perhaps they could

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5 Amy would be pleased if she would get the job.
6 I’d invite Sarah if I knew her address.
7 This room looked better if you’d paint it blue.
8 If the guests will arrive late I’d be annoyed.
Language point 83 – ‘I bet’, ‘I wish’,
‘if only’
In Dialogue 1 Ann says to Justine I bet you wouldn’t be happy, and
Justine answers with the tag response I bet I would – we can use I
bet to express a strong opinion and invite agreement:
I bet Amy didn’t pass her driving test! – I bet she did!
I bet you don’t know what I’ve got in
this bag. – I bet I do!
I bet they haven’t seen the film yet. – I bet they have!
or simply to contradict what the other person has just said:
Harry’s not coming tonight. – I bet he is!
It’s too late now to get tickets. – I bet it isn’t!
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I don’t think Dave was interested. – I bet he was!
Your parents wouldn’t like it here. – I bet they would!
I wish and If only are used with a C2 conditional (would /’d) to say
that you want someone to do something even though you know they
probably won’t. More examples:
I wish Adrian would give up singing!
If only our employers would give us a pay rise!
If only it would rain!
I wish you wouldn’t be so awkward!
Notice that If only . . . is the only instance of if where we use would.
You can’t use these phrases for making ordinary requests:
Please open the window for me
= Would you open the window for me?

: I wish you’d stop fussing. I won’t phone unless there
are problems.
S
ARAH
: But I’ll worry if I don’t hear you’ve arrived!
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