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  • Hi, welcome again to www.EngVid.com . My name is Adam. Today's lesson is about "if not",

  • "unless", "as long as", "not". Actually, this is a lesson a few students have requested,

  • because a lot of people get confused with this word "unless". So that's going to be the focus of our lesson,

  • although to understand this word "unless", you have to understand

  • the "if not" conditional. That's called a "conditional phrase."

  • Before we do anything, we need to make sure that everybody understands how to use the

  • conditional. How to use an "if clause", because sometimes people get confused with this.

  • Today we're going to focus on a real conditional. Not the past, not the hypothetical, the unreal.

  • We're just going to focus on the real one, because all of this stuff applies to the other ones, as well.

  • So let's start. Before I look into the grammar of it, which is actually important, let me

  • give you a sentence. Next week you have a test, and you come to me for advice as your teacher,

  • and what am I going to tell you.

  • "If you don't study, you won't succeed." "If you study, you will succeed."

  • Very simple, right? So first, we're going to look at how to structure this sentence,

  • because then I want to show you that "unless" basically means the same as "if not". Okay,

  • so first, to make a real conditional sentence you have your "if". You have your subject.

  • You have your present verb, for example "or".

  • You have "if", subject, and your not present: "If you don't study," and then the second half.

  • Now, the second half could be positive or negative. The second half of the clause doesn't matter, according to what you have here.

  • This will always be the same. It doesn't matter which clause you're beginning with,

  • you're always going to end the same way, because

  • the meaning doesn't change, okay?

  • But we're going to get into more specifics. "If you study, you will succeed." "If you don't study, you will fail."

  • Or, "If you study, you will not fail." "If you don't study, you will fail."

  • The verb you use here defines which one of these you're going to use.

  • So this is not important. This doesn't change. What we're going to focus on is here. Now

  • the most important thing to remember is that "unless" basically means "if not". You'll

  • notice here I have a positive verb. I have a negative verb. We're also going

  • to look at "as long as", or "as long as not", positive and negative.

  • With "unless", you're only going to use a positive verb, okay? That's very important to remember.

  • "Unless you study, you will fail. Unless you study, you will not succeed." It's all relative,

  • and "as long as" means the exact same thing as the "if" or the "unless".

  • "As long as you study, you will do well." "As long as you don't study, you won't do well." Okay?

  • Very simple. So "if not", "unless", "as long as...not", basically all mean the same thing.

  • You just have to remember how to structure it, and the structure is almost the same.

  • What is the most important, do not use "unless" with "not." Then you have a double negative.

  • We all know from our beginner English classes we don't like double negatives, right? Okay, good.

  • Let's look at some examples of actual sentences to see how all of this works.

  • Okay so here we have some sentences. Let's go through each one and I'll make the changes to the negatives, as I go along.

  • "If you quit smoking," for all you smokers out there. "If you quit smoking, you will feel better."

  • "If" + subject + verb - will + verb, positive verb, etc. Or: "If you quit smoking, you won't feel bad."

  • Now what happens if I introduce the negative into the first part?

  • "If you don't..." "If you don't quit smoking" what's going to happen? Or what will happen?

  • "If you don't quit smoking, you'll feel better." Is that true? No. "If you don't quit smoking, you'll feel bad."

  • "If you don't quit smoking, you won't feel good."

  • You made this the negative. You have to change the consequences. You have to change the condition that will happen after this is met.

  • This is the difference, right? "If you don't quit smoking, you'll feel bad."

  • Let's look at this sentence. "Unless you quit smoking, you will feel bad." Now what's the

  • difference between this sentence and this sentence with a "don't"? Nothing, it's the exact same.

  • Here is the result: "If you don't quit smoking, you will feel bad."

  • Bad and bad, do you understand what I'm saying? The "unless" is the same as, "if you don't".

  • This is what we have to remember here. This is the negative included in the word.

  • Now usually when there's a negative in a word, everybody can understand it. In the word "unless"

  • there's nothing to tell you it's a negative, except maybe the word "less," but not really, right?

  • So you have to be very careful to remember this means "if not". "Unless you quit smoking, you won't feel good."

  • You won't feel good.

  • Same thing, but the "don't" and the "unless" go together, same meaning. "As long as you smoke,"

  • now here I have the verb "smoke". Here I put "quit smoking". I went to the opposite verb, "smoke".

  • "As long as you smoke, you will feel bad." "As long as you don't smoke", what is the consequence?

  • "You will feel good."

  • What do you know, "don't" changes the consequence. "Don't" changes the consequence.

  • "Unless" is the consequence. We don't say, "Unless you don't quit smoking." It's a double negative.

  • It sounds very strange, it feels very strange. We don't use it. We go with this negative,

  • and we have the matching consequence. "Consequence" basically means the result of the action.

  • Okay, I hope this is pretty clear. Anyway, go to www.EngVid.com . There's a quiz there.

  • You can also ask me questions. Don't forget to check out the video on YouTube as well,

  • and subscribe to my channel, and I'll see you again real soon. Bye.

  • Learn English for free www.engvid.com

Hi, welcome again to www.EngVid.com . My name is Adam. Today's lesson is about "if not",

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