CONDITIONAL SENTENCES – ALTERNATIVES TO IF

Unless: a menos que, a no ser que.

Se utiliza en lugar de if + not en oraciones condicionales de todos los tipos.

IMPORTANTE: actúa como una negación. Es decir, si la oración inicial es: I won´t go to school if we don´t
have a test; la oración utilizando UNLESS sería: I won´t go to school unless we have a test.

Provided (that): siempre y cuando, siempre que.

Para conectar el hecho con la condición sin la cual no se produciría. Esta condición puede ser positiva (que
suceda tal cosa) o negativa (que no suceda tal cosa)

Ej: Provided that I eat a big breakfast, I can skip lunch.

I will come to visit you tomorrow, provided it doesn't rain.

Providing (that): siempre y cuando, siempre que.

Para conectar el hecho con la condición sin la cual no se produciría. Esta condición puede ser positiva (que
suceda tal cosa) o negativa (que no suceda tal cosa).

Ej: You may go to the dance providing you are back by midnight.

We will refund your money providing that you return the product to us.

Se usa THAT cuando providing pueda traducirse por “as long as”; y NO se usa THAT cuando providing
pueda traducirse por “on condition that”.

Otherwise: si no, de lo contrario.

Ej: Take an umbrella, otherwise you'll get wet.

Even if: aunque

Ej: Even if you take a taxi, you'll still miss your train.

He's really funny, even if he's also rather arrogant.

Only if: sólo si

Ej: You can have your place in the room, but only if you behave yourself.
In case of: en caso de, por si.

I'm going to take an umbrella, just in case the weather changes.

I´m going to take my umbrella in case it rains. / I´m going to take my umbrella in case of rain.

In case of emergency, please call 911.

As long as: siempre y cuando. Es lo mismo que PROVIDING THAT.

Ej: She can't go home as long as she has work to do.

As long as she has money, she is happy.

As long as it's snowing, we should stay inside.

As soon as: en cuanto, tan pronto como.

Ej: I'll do it as soon as I can.

As soon as you are finished, we will have lunch.

Supposing: suponiendo que, en caso de que, si…

Suppose that: suponiendo que, en caso de que, si…

Usamos supposing, suppose that + presente para hacer sugerencias sobre lo que podría suceder.

Ej: What time shall we meet? Suppose we meet in the offices downstairs at four o’clock?

Cuando estamos menos seguros, usamos supposing, supposing that + pasado para hablar de posibilidades
futuras.

Ej: Supposing someone else wrote the essay. How would we know?

Suppose we asked Mary to baby-sit? Do you think she would do it?

Cuando nos referimos a algo que no sucedió (algo hipotético), utilizamos past perfect.

Ej: Suppose we hadn’t brought our umbrellas. (We did bring our umbrellas.)

Supposing they had closed the road. Would that have been a good idea? (They didn’t close the road.)