ESL Conversations: 50 Conditional Questions

Conditional questions can contribute to this since you can discuss a great variety of situations using them.

You can make questions and get answers like these:

• What would you do If you had $500?
• I would buy comic books

• What country would you visit if you had enough money?
• I would probably visit Italy

• Will you buy another car if you get a job?
• I will certainly do

• What will you do if you get sick before the game?
• I will ask Mike to play instead of me.

Now that we know a little bit about, let’s explore how to use them in the classroom.

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Conversation Questions: How to Use Them

Conversation Questions are a good way to promote speaking in the classroom.

• You can easily promote speaking in the classroom by printing these questions and giving strips of paper to students so they can take turns to speak and let the interaction move from there with follow up questions.

• You can also tell students to make pairs and talk for a minute about one of the questions.

• You can choose images and ask students to create a question based on them.

My suggestion is don’t focus on all of them at the same time because it can confuse your learners.

Now let’s learn how many types of conditional questions there are.

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How Much do you Know about Conditional Sentences?

Find out how much you know about conditional questions by taking this short quiz

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5 Types of Conditional Questions

A conditional sentence is a type of sentence that states a condition and the outcome of that condition occurring. Conditional sentences are made up of a dependent clause and an independent clause joined to express said condition.

There are five ways to make conditional sentences in English:

1. Zero Conditional
2. First Conditional
3. Second Conditional
4. Third Conditional
5. Mixed Conditional

Let’s take a look at some of these questions

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Conditional Questions with the First Conditional

The First Conditional is a structure used for talking about possibilities in the present or in the future

This is the structure that you need to follow to make such sentences.

If	Simple Present	Future with Will
If	I get a car	I will stop taking the bus
If	I get that job	I will stop playing soccer

These are some example of questions made with the First Conditional

1. What will you when you get retired?
2. What will you do if you win the lottery?
3. What will you do if you break up with your friend?
4. What will you do if you get divorced?
5. If you want to relax after class, what will you watch?
6. If you have some free time on Saturday, will you study more?
7. What medicine will you take if you catch a cold next week?
8. What will you do if you pass the TOIEC Exam?
9. What will you do if you get your dream job?
10. What will you do if your mother buys you a car?

Remember that you can answer these questions freely and not necessarily using information from the questions themselves.

For example

• What will you do if you pass the TOIEC Exam?
• I will apply for a teaching positions in a small school

• What will you do if you get divorced?
• I will probably go out more often

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Conditional Questions with the Second Conditional

These conditional questions are based on the second conditional.

The second conditional is a structure used for talking about unreal situations in the present or in the future

This is the structure to make those sentences.

If	Simple Past	Would + Infinitive
If	I had money	I would buy a car
If	I had a girlfriend	I would take her out every Friday

Now we know the structure, let take a look at the different types of the sentences we can make with the second conditional.

If you ask me, these are the most interest questions we can make since you need to think a lot to discuss hypothetical situations.

These are some example of questions made with the second conditional:

1. What would you do if somebody stole your car?
2. What would you do if you saw a man trying to steal your car?
3. Where would  you live if you could live anywhere?
4. If you were powerful enough to change the world,what would you change?
5. If you were given three wishes, what would you wish?
6. Where would you go if you could go anywhere in the world?
7. If you could change your past, what would you change?
8. If your house was on fire, what personal belonging would you miss the most?
9. If you could be anyone in the world, who would you be?

These are what would you do questions

1. What would you do if you won a million dollars?
2. If you won the lottery, what would you buy?
3. If you changed your name, what name would you choose?
4. What would you do if you could be invisible for a day?
5. What would you do if you saw a ghost?
6. What would you do if you saw a person shoplifting?
7. What would you do if a robber broke in at night?
8. What would you do if you had to catch a bus but you don’t have any money?
9. What would you do if you saw a man hitting a woman?
10. What would you do if you saw three men attacking another man?

These are second conditional questions that start with the sentence if you had

1. If you had enough money to giveaway, who would you help?
2. If you had $1000 dollars to spend within an hour, how would you spend them?
3. If you had only 24 hours to live, what would you do?
4. If you had excellent fighting skills, What would you do with them?
5. If you had the chance to interview a celebrity, what questions would you make?
6. If you had to run away from the police, where would you hide?
7. If you had to watch a TV show for 24 hours, what would that show be?

These are second conditional questions that start with the sentence if you could

1. If you could be an animal, what animal would you be?
2. If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?
3. If you could travel anywhere in the worlds, where would you go?
4. If you could commit any crime and get away with it, what would you do?
5. If you could be famous, what would you like to be famous for?
6. If you could be a Marvel Comics super hero, who would you like to be?
7. If you could be a DC Comics super hero, who would you like to be?
8. If you could be an athlete, what sport would you like to be good at?
9. If you could pick to do any other job for a living, what would that job be?
10. If you could travel back in time, what year would you go to?

These are some examples about how I would respond these questions

• If you could be a DC Comics super hero, who would you like to be?
• I would like to be Superman

• If you could be a Marvel Comics super hero, who would you like to be?
• I would be Deadpool since he is kinda funny

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Conditional Questions with the Third Conditional

We use the third conditional to reconstruct imaginary situations in the past.

For example, ‘what would have happened, if the Titanic hadn’t sunk?’

This is the structure to make third conditional sentences

If	Past Perfect	Would Have + Past Participle
If	I could have chosen	I would have taken another position
If	I have had enough money	I would have bought a car

Now that we know the structure, let’s take a look at some examples of these questions.

1. What university would you have chosen if you could have done absolutely anything?
2. Would you have attended university if you have had the money?
3. Would you have bought a brand new car if you have had enough money to do so?
4. What would have been different about your life if you had grown up in another country?
5. What would you have studied if you hadn’t studied Math?

These are some of the answers to those questions:

• What would you have studied if you hadn’t studied Math?
• I would have studied Business Administration

• Would you have attended university if you have had the money?
• I would have attended an expensive university

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Mixed Conditional Questions

Mixed conditional questions follow different patterns, let’s take a look at some of these questions

Mixed Conditional Past and Present:

• would you still be rich if you had won the lottery?
• Would you have more opportunities if you had learned English?

Mixed Conditional Past and Future

• Would she be joining us if you had signed for the trip?
• Would you be running with us if you had entered the race?

These type of conditional questions are not the best for conversations, I think second conditional questions can spark conversation without many difficulties.

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Interested in Learning some more?

Promote interaction in classes using conversation questions

• 60 Travel Conversation Questions
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• 70 Questions about Love

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