Comments on: Grammar Guru: If Congress will pass/ passes/ passed http://annehodgson.de/2009/12/27/grammar-guru-if-congress-will-pass-passes-passed/ Learning English Online with Anne Hodgson Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:01:24 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Anne http://annehodgson.de/2009/12/27/grammar-guru-if-congress-will-pass-passes-passed/comment-page-1/#comment-3255 Anne Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:24:18 +0000 http://annehodgson.de/?p=11348#comment-3255 Correct: If Congress passes the health care bill, US citizens will finally have universal access to health coverage. 83%, 10 votes - congratulations! Incorrect: <span style="text-decoration: line-through">If Congress will pass</span> and <span style="text-decoration: line-through">If Congress passed</span> got 9%, 1 vote each Well, you know what they say: "If and will makes me ill!" We generally DON'T use "will" in a first conditional if-clause. There is an exception: We use "will" as a polite command, "If you will just sign the form right here." This is very similar to the polite form "If you would just sign the form at the bottom." The second might be just a bit more polite. For more on the first conditional, see <a href="http://www.spotlight-online.de/language/basics/conditional-1" rel="nofollow">Dagmar's nice explanation and exercise here.</a> Correct: If Congress passes the health care bill, US citizens will finally have universal access to health coverage. 83%, 10 votes – congratulations!
Incorrect: If Congress will pass and If Congress passed got 9%, 1 vote each

Well, you know what they say:
“If and will makes me ill!”
We generally DON’T use “will” in a first conditional if-clause.

There is an exception: We use “will” as a polite command, “If you will just sign the form right here.” This is very similar to the polite form “If you would just sign the form at the bottom.” The second might be just a bit more polite.

For more on the first conditional, see
Dagmar’s nice explanation and exercise here.

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