Unless

Speaking English - How to use "unless"

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• published: 10 Jul 2013
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http://www.engvid.com/ You won't understand how to use this word UNLESS you watch this grammar lesson! Learn how to use "unless" in those tricky conditional and negative conditional sentences. I'll show you how to change "if you don't prepare for the TOEFL" to "unless you prepare for the TOEFL". I'll also give you an easy formula to start using "unless" in your own English conversations. Take a quiz on this lesson here: http://www.engvid.com/speaking-english-unless/ TRANSCRIPT: Hi. My name is Rebecca from www.engvid.com. In today's lesson, you'll learn how to use the word "unless" correctly in English. Now, the word "unless" expresses a negative condition. That means that unless one thing happens, something else cannot happen. Let's look at some examples on the board, and I think you'll learn this very easily, okay? Let's get started. Now, for example, let's take the first sentence: "You can't go to university if you don't finish high school." So the negative condition here is "if you don't finish high school", right? So instead of saying "if you don't", you could say, "You can't go to university unless you finish high school." Okay? "You can't go to university if you don't finish high school" or "You can't go to university unless you finish." So here, you see that we had to use the negative words, "if you don't". But when we use the word "unless", it does that automatically. Let's look at another example: "You can't enter the club if you don't have ID." "ID" is short for "identification". "You can't enter the club unless you have ID. You can't enter the club unless you have ID." Next one: "You can't visit Italy if you don't get a visa." So what do we do? We place this, and we can say, "You can't visit Italy unless you get a visa." "You can't borrow books if you don't have a library card." How would we change that using "unless"? "You can't borrow books unless you have a library card." Last one: "You can't pass the TOEFL if you don't prepare." How would you change that using "unless"? "You can't pass the TOEFL unless you prepare." All right? Next, I'll give you an exercise so you can practice this a little bit better. Now, let's try a couple of examples with "unless". Let's say this is the situation: "John can't go out unless he does a few things." So how would you say that? "John can't go out unless he finishes his homework; unless he cleans his room; unless he takes a shower." Okay? Good. Let's see if you can do this one. You can say it at home: "I can't improve my English unless I read more books; I write more often; I watch more EngVid lessons." Okay? So you see how "unless" can be used in these examples. Try your best to write some sentences of your own, create a situation that, "Today, I can't do this unless I do that." And each day, if you write a sentence like that with what you need to do or what has to happen before something else can happen, you will learn how to use the word "unless". So if you'd like to do a quiz on this subject, you can go to our website: www.engvid.com. All the best with your English. Bye, for now.