Conditionals & wishes · CEFR B1 · Independent
Suppose / What if…? — English conditionals
A spoken way of opening a conditional. The present tense makes it a real possibility; the past makes it more distant or less likely.
The shape
What if + present or past · Suppose + clause
Raise a possibility in conversation.
In Hindi
बातचीत में शर्त शुरू करने का तरीक़ा। वर्तमान काल असली संभावना, भूतकाल दूर की बात।
CoCap explains every structure in both languages, because a rule you understand in Hindi is a rule you can use in English.
The mistake to fix first
The sentence Indian-English speakers actually produce, and the reason it is wrong.
| Commonly said | Correct English |
|---|---|
What if it will rain tomorrow? | What if it rains tomorrow? Like "if", this pattern takes the present for a future possibility. |
Easy to confuse with
Close enough to be mixed up with this one. Knowing the difference is most of knowing either.
- First conditionalA2Talk about what will happen if something does
- Second conditionalB1Imagine a situation that is not real
Questions people ask
- What is the suppose / what if…? used for?
- A spoken way of opening a conditional. The present tense makes it a real possibility; the past makes it more distant or less likely. In practice: raise a possibility in conversation.
- How do you form the suppose / what if…??
- What if + present or past · Suppose + clause.
- What is the most common mistake with the suppose / what if…??
- Saying “What if it will rain tomorrow?” instead of “What if it rains tomorrow?”. Like "if", this pattern takes the present for a future possibility.
Where suppose / what if…? fits
Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.
Suppose / What if…? is a CEFR B1 structure — the independent band — and it belongs to conditionals & wishes. CoCap’s syllabus files every structure this way so you can learn in order instead of jumping between whatever a search happened to return.
Reading it is not the same as saying it.
CoCap turns this page into practice: Hindi sentence in, English sentence out, corrected one thing at a time. Free, no card.
Practise the suppose / what if…? →