Mixed Conditionals for Business English ESL

Explore mixed conditionals in a business English context through discussions on project management, contingency planning, and reflective meetings. Dive into grammar exercises with dialogues highlighting conditional sentences and their implications for project success.

• Business English
• ESL
• Mixed Conditionals
• Project Management
• Grammar

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1. Mixed conditionals for Business English ESL Brains

2. Lets get started with a warm-up ESL Brains ESL Brains

3. Discuss the questions. What project(s) are you working on right now? What might go wrong when working on a project? Do you draft a contingency plan (aka Plan B) for every project? When a project ends, do you have a meeting to discuss what went well and what went wrong? 3 ESL Brains

4. Its grammar time! ESL Brains ESL Brains

5. part 1/2 Read a short dialogue from a final project meeting and find all the conditional sentences. Peggy: Who would like to start? Manuela: I can! So, all in all, I think we ve done pretty well. But, of course, there are some things worth pointing out. During our next project, we definitely need to read the project brief more carefully. As you all know, this time we didn t and because of this, we faced some serious problems. For example, if we hadn t missed the functionality requirement described in the last point of the brief, we wouldn t be working on it now. John: Yeah, I agree with you. What I would also like to add is that we have to work on setting achievable milestones. I feel that we are sometimes a little over-optimistic. If we were more realistic when planning projects, we would have achieved all of the project s goals on time. 5 ESL Brains

6. part 2/2 Read a short dialogue from a final project meeting and find all the conditional sentences. Peggy: Sure, that s something we need to work on, but, let s face it, it s not easy to change personality. Nevertheless, there is one more thing I want to discuss. We need to remember that every project is a joint effort by the whole team and not just one person. For sure, we need to give thanks to you, Manuela. I feel that if you weren t such a good team player and hard worker, we wouldn t have done so well. Manuela: Oh, come on, we all did our best! Next time, we just need to spend more time on a contingency plan because it can really save our lives! This time, however, we didn t have any, and that s why we had so many delays. If we had had a complete and well- thought-out Plan B, we could just celebrate our success now and not be thinking about how we are going to finish the project in just a week. John: You re right Manuela! It should give us some food for thought. 6 ESL Brains

7. part 1/2 Let s check the answers. Peggy: Who would like to start? Manuela: I can! So, all in all, I think we ve done pretty well. But, of course, there are some things worth pointing out. During our next project, we definitely need to read the project brief more carefully. As you all know, this time we didn t and because of this, we faced some serious problems. For example, if we hadn t missed the functionality requirement described in the last point of the brief, we wouldn t be working on it now. John: Yeah, I agree with you. What I would also like to add is that we have to work on setting achievable milestones. I feel that we are sometimes a little over-optimistic. If we were more realistic when planning projects, we would have achieved all of the project s goals on time. 7 ESL Brains

8. part 2/2 Let s check the answers. Peggy: Sure, that s something we need to work on, but, let s face it, it s not easy to change personality. Nevertheless, there is one more thing I want to discuss. We need to remember that every project is a joint effort by the whole team and not just one person. For sure, we need to give thanks to you, Manuela. I feel that if you weren t such a good team player and hard worker, we wouldn t have done so well. Manuela: Oh, come on, we all did our best! Next time, we just need to spend more time on a contingency plan because it can really save our lives! This time, however, we didn t have any, and that s why we had so many delays. If we had had a complete and well- thought-out Plan B, we could just celebrate our success now and not be thinking about how we are going to finish the project in just a week. John: You re right Manuela! It should give us some food for thought. 8 ESL Brains

9. part 1/2 Study the table below and choose the correct words (present or past) in the rule sections. MIXED CONDITIONALS SAMPLE SENTENCES If we hadn t missed the functionality requirement described in the last point of the brief, we wouldn t be working on it now. If we had had a complete and well-thought-out Plan B, we could just celebrate our success now and not be thinking about how we are going to finish the project in just a week. THE RULE We use if + past perfect, would/could/might + infinitive to talk about PRESENT/PAST results of a hypothetical situation or condition in the PRESENT/PAST. 9 ESL Brains

10. part 1/2 Let s check the answers. MIXED CONDITIONALS SAMPLE SENTENCES If we hadn t missed the functionality requirement described in the last point of the brief, we wouldn t be working on it now. If we had had a complete and well-thought-out Plan B, we could just celebrate our success now and not be thinking about how we are going to finish the project in just a week. THE RULE We use if + past perfect, would/could/might + infinitive to talk about PRESENT/PAST results of a hypothetical situation or condition in the PRESENT/PAST. 10 ESL Brains

11. part 2/2 Study the table below and choose the correct words (present or past) in the rule sections. MIXED CONDITIONALS SAMPLE SENTENCES If we were more realistic when planning projects, we would have achieved all of the project s goals on time. If you weren t such a good team player and hard worker, we wouldn t have done so well. THE RULE We use if + past simple, would/could/might + have + past participle to talk about PRESENT/PAST results of a PRESENT/PAST situation or condition. 11 ESL Brains

12. part 2/2 Let s check the answers. MIXED CONDITIONALS SAMPLE SENTENCES If we were more realistic when planning projects, we would have achieved all of the project s goals on time. If you weren t such a good team player and hard worker, we wouldn t have done so well. THE RULE We use if + past simple, would/could/might + have + past participle to talk about PRESENT/PAST results of a PRESENT/PAST situation or condition. 12 ESL Brains

13. Now, well put it into practice! ESL Brains ESL Brains

14. Complete the sentences with the correct form of the verbs in brackets. A. If we ____ (leave) earlier, we ____________ (sit) on the plane now. B. If you _____ (be) so lazy, you ____________ (finish) your task by now. C. We _____ (be) in a better financial position now if you _________ (not reject) that job. D. If he _____ (not steal) money from the company, he _______ still ____ (work) for us. E. If you ___ (not have) such a good memory, we __________ (not find) that place again. 14 ESL Brains

15. Lets check the answers. A. If we ____ (leave) earlier, we ____________ (sit) on the plane now. would be sitting had left B. If you _____ (be) so lazy, you ____________ (finish) your task by now. weren t would have finished would be hadn t rejected C. We _____ (be) in a better financial position now if you _________ (not reject) that job. hadn t stolen would D. If he _____ (not steal) money from the company, he _______ still ____ (work) for us. work didn t have wouldn t have found E. If you ___ (not have) such a good memory, we __________ (not find) that place again. 15 ESL Brains

16. Rephrase the sentences using mixed conditionals. You didn t finish your work on time because you are a procrastinator. EXAMPLE If I weren t such a procrastinator, I would have finished my work on time. A. You were late for a kick-off meeting. Now, you don t know the details of the project. B. You should be participating in a business meeting now, but you are not. Your taxi didn t come on time. C. You are a really good worker. You got promoted. D. You don t know German well enough. You didn t get a new job because the company s language is German. 16 ESL Brains

17. Lets talk! ESL Brains ESL Brains

18. Choose one box in the next slide, finish the sentence you will see so that it is a mixed conditional sentence and continue the story by giving two or three more sentences. Go back, choose another box and repeat the process. EXAMPLE If he hadn t stolen money from the company If he hadn t stolen money from the company, he would still work for us. Unfortunately, he was too greedy and that made him a criminal. I really miss Stan. Actually, he was such a nice guy. I wonder whether he will ever find a job again in finance. 18 ESL Brains

19. Click a box to uncover the beginning of a sentence to finish. 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 15 11 12 13 14 15 19 ESL Brains

20. THANKS! ESL Brains ESL Brains