Conditional Sentences IF vs. WENN – ENGLISH vs. GERMAN study note

This is a not a Bullet Journal-related topic, I am aware 🙂 But learning languages (German at the moment) is just as big a hobby and habit as journaling to me.

Currently, I am finishing the third and also last book of the Grammatik Aktiv series (resource link below), which would also mean: now is the last ever chance I get to cram all these grammar rules 😉.

Therefore, I want to document and summarize what I learn, just as I have been doing for Bullet Journal experiences in other posts, and just as I used to be doing a lot when learning English back in the days.

I would also attempt to compare the Conditional Sentences, or IF Sentences of English to WENN Sentences of German for…some spicy foods for brains 😜 No, just kidding.

I just hope it would be helpful for a learner of the German language to relate to the English rules to memorize them easier and start using them better. Or it could simply serve as a refresher for both language learners to quickly go through conditional sentences again, before an exam or so.

Let’s get started with what conditional sentences mean and how many types there are. Then we move on to the hardcore part of grammatical structures. At the end, I also provide a simplified cheatsheet for building both English and German conditional sentences, together with extra reference resources.

What Are Conditional Sentences?

Conditional sentences, just as its name suggests, provide a condition for which a reality:

• can be true or,
• could be true (see the tense change from “can” to “could”) or,
• could have been true (see the structure changes again, this will have some implications for later)

A conditional sentence usually needs 2 clauses. The condition is provided in IF clause (or WENN-satz in German), while the MAIN clause (or Hauptsatz) describes the result that might happen or might have happened due to this condition being true.

How Many Types of Conditional Sentences Are There?

Since back in the old school days, I was taught that there are 4 types of Conditional Sentences, but for the sake of understanding and memorizing, I usually just ask myself: is the condition possible or impossible to happen?

At the end of the day, determining the right IF type is mainly for determining the right verb tenses, in my humble opinion. This can be achieved by knowing about the possibility of the condition.

IF Type	Examples	Remark on verb tenses
TYPE 0	If the temperature reaches 100 degree, the water boils.	Possible condition → present tense
TYPE 1	If I study now, I will not study later in the evening.	Possible condition → present tense
TYPE 2	(Right now I am busy blogging) So: If I studied now, I would need to finish my blog article later in the evening.	Impossible condition → past tense
TYPE 3	(Yesterday I did not study at all, oops). So: If I had studied yesterday, I would have not felt so stressed today.	Impossible condition → past tense

Let’s also take a look at the German version of these conditional sentences for a quick comparison and for how fascinating the categorization rules can also be applied neatly here.

WENN Typ	Beispiele	Bemerkung
TYP 0	Wenn die Temperatur 100 Grad erreicht, kocht das Wasser.	Mögliche Kondition → Präsens
TYP 1	Wenn ich jetzt studiere, werde ich später am Abend nicht studieren.	Mögliche Kondition → Präsens
TYP 2	(Jetzt bin ich mit Bloggen beschäftigt). Also: Wenn ich jetzt studieren würde, müsste ich meinen Blogartikel später am Abend fertigstellen.	Unmögliche Kondition → Konjunktiv II (Präteritum)
TYP 3	(Gestern habe ich gar nicht studiert, oops). Also: Wenn ich gestern studiert hätte, hätte ich mich heute nicht so gestresst gefühlt.	Unmögliche Kondition → Konjunktiv II (Plusquamperfekt)

There are many overlapping similarities in the usage, the number of different IF (or WENN) types, and the concept of moving verb tenses between the two languages. This already makes me genuinely relieved and excited.

A prominent distinction, when you look closely at the above examples in both languages again, is that the verb would start the Main clause for German when the WENN clause is in front. The German sentences do have a distinct word order, don’t they?

Let’s talk more about the general structure of conditional sentences next.

How to Make Conditional Sentences?

Conditional Sentences – Type 0

When to use this type: when talking about a condition that is always true, such as the Sun always rises from the East, or the water always boils at 100 degree.

Using this type means the confidence on both the condition and the result being true is high, no matter what, … or in this case, no matter when. It is true now, as it is always true. Hence, Present Simple tense is used throughout the sentence.

How to form this type:

If this helps, Type 0 is the simplest of them all, just as simple as Present Simple.

Conditional Sentences – Type 1

When to use this type: when talking about a condition that is likely to be true in the present, even in the future.

As the confidence of possibility is still high, the tense stays in the Present for the Condition, but the Result is not yet confirmed so we move the tense up to the Future. So basically, this type is trying to make a Present prediction for a Future possible outcome.

How to form this type:

Here’s a quick refresher on the structures of Main Clause:

• EN: WILL + Verb-Infinitive form
• DE: correct form of WERDEN (see table below) + Verb-Infinitiv form

Subject Pronoun	EN-will	Subjekt Pronoun	DE-werden
I	will	ich	werde
you	will	du	wirst
he/she/it/one	will	er/sie/es/man	wird
we	will	wir	werden
you (plural)	will	ihr	werdet
they	will	sie	werden

Conditional Sentences – Type 2

When to use this type: contradicting to Type 1, this type is used when talking about a condition that is NOT LIKELY to be true in the present or future.

As the confidence of possibility is not as high as the previous case, we move the tenses backwards to the Past in both Condition and Main clauses. This same behavior applies for both English and German languages.

How to form If-Type 2 Conditional Sentences in English:

First, let’s talk about the Condition Clause.

The reality of example 1 above is: I am blogging and not studying right now, which makes the condition of me studying now instead of blogging not true. Therefore, I use “studied now” in this Condition-Type 2 and not “study now” as in the previous Condition-Type 1.

Similarly, the reality of example 2 above is: He is too shy to ask for his crush’ phone number, which makes the condition of him braving up to approach his crush (sadly!) not likely.

The important take-away here is the tense of the verb in the Condition clause is now Past Simple (as in “I studied” and “he was”) and not Present Simple. Remember the spell above if impossible condition, then past tenses?

This plays out the same for Main clause with a minor twist that Modal Verbs, such as would / could / should / must / might are employed to pair with the main verb.

But in a way if I may, aren’t these Modal Verbs also past forms of will / shall / can / may? The spell checks out again.

How to form Wenn-Typ 2 Conditional Sentences in German:

The same logic to move the tenses back to the Past shows particularly clear in German use of Konjunktiv II (Präteritum). This is a verb form that:

• In and of itself, expresses a possibility and not reality (hence, it’s also called “Möglichkeitsform”, or the form of possibility)

• Tends to use the “Umlaut” version to distinguish it from its Präteritum Past form. For example: ich bin (Präsens) – ich war (Präteritum) – ich wäre (Konjunktiv II-Präteritum)

If I may, for the sake of this article, mention only these mostly used verbs in Konjunktiv II verb forms. They are:

• Modal verbs, like würden/ könnten / sollten / müssten / dürften (be careful with Umlaut!)

• and also some special verb cases, like “wären” – ”to be” or “hätten” – ”to have” (again, be careful with Umlaut! Without them, it’s not Konjunktiv II anymore but Präteritum Past form).

Let’s take a look at some examples:

When learning this German lesson, I tried to connect it with English by thinking: the employment of Konjunktiv II-Präteritum is in fact, also just the same movement of verb tense to the Past (or Präteritum), but with an added flavor of possibility.

English just does not have this offer of Konjunktiv II. So we only make the Condition-Type 2 with Past Simple, such as “If I had time”.

However, as German has this Konjunktiv II – verb form of possibility, we can now, instead of “Wenn ich Zeit hatte”, say “Wenn ich Zeit hätte” to add the extra flavor of a possibility.

Another slight difference between English and German I notice is that, German would in most typical cases employ the Konjunktiv II verb forms of würden/ könnten / sollten / müssten / dürften / hätten / wären in both Conditional and Main clauses.

In this regard, I’m quite grateful for the German language. As most of the time these Modal verbs would be used for the entire sentence, we are saved on the effort of having to conjugate the verbs as we have to in English when forming the IF clause.

I cannot be happier about this news. Who can forget the day Past Simple tense was introduced in class, together with that long list of irregular verbs and their Past forms?

Here’s a quick refresher on the structures of Modal Verb + Verb- Infinitiv and the conjugation of the Modal verbs:

Only for German learners: Here’s another quick refresher on the conjugation of “wären” and “hätten”, the Konjunktiv II forms of “sein” and “haben”, respectively. As mentioned, they can still be very regularly used in both Conditional and Main Clauses, in place of the Modal Verbs. For example: Wenn wir uns jetzt treffen könnten, wäre ich viel glücklicher.

Subjekt Pronoun	sein → wären	haben → hätten
ich	wäre	hätte
du	wärest	hättest
er/sie/es/man	wäre	hätte
wir	wären	hätten
ihr	wäret	hättet
sie	wären	hätten

Conditional Sentence – Type 3

When to use this type: when talking about a condition that if it were to be true, would or could have changed the past. But as fas as we know, there is no such things as time travel and altering the past, the possibilities for the sentence to be true is known to be impossible.

This is where Type 2 and Type 3 differ.

How I usually think about these two is that: Type 2 describes an unrealistic wish for something to happen (or not) now or in the future, but it is yet confirmed as impossible. On the other hand, Type 3 expresses an unrealistic wish upon a flashback, even a regret for something to have happened (or not) in the past, which is known already to be impossible.

Thinking this, I remember to formulate my sentences further past with Past Perfect for English and Plusquamperfekt (Konjunktiv II) for German.

How to form If-Type 3 Conditional Sentences in English:

Just a quick reminder on the structures of:

• Past Perfect: HAD + Verb-Participle
• Modal Verbs (would/could/should/must/might) + HAVE + Verb-Participle.

Remember: Type 2 runs on Past Simple mode, Type 3 runs on Past Perfect mode.

How to form Wenn-Typ 3 Conditional Sentences in German:

Let me try to explain what is going to happen, before showing you the examples.

Firstly, the idea of using Konjunktiv II remains here in Type-3, just as Type-2. This explains why you’d still see a lot of “hätten” (the Konjunktiv II form of “haben”) or “wären” (the Konjunktiv II form of “sein”) in the below examples.

However, instead of employing other Modal Verbs like würden/ könnten / sollten / müssten / dürften as Type-2 to do the job, Type-3 sticks with “hätten”, except sometimes when “wären” is needed instead, as required by Plusquamperfekt.

If it helps, I usually try to think that, just like “had” must be used to formulate Past Perfect in Type-3 sentences of English, I must use “hätten” to formulate Konjunktiv II – Plusquamperfekt.

The only difference is, if one can just pair “had” with any verbs, from “had done” to “had been”, “hätten” is not always the only option in German. Particularly, “sein” and verbs with motions like “fliegen” (to fly) or “laufen” (to walk) have their own way of making Plusquamperfekt with “wären” instead.

For example:

• I would have flown to you → Ich wäre zu dir geflogen. NEVER 🙅🏻‍♀️: Ich hätte zu dir geflogen.
• She would have been happier. → Sie wäre glücklicher gewesen.

Let’s demonstrate these rules in the first 2 examples:

Next, you might ask yourself, how can I express regrets like “I should have done it.” or “You could have told me.” in German, when it’s only now just “hätten” or “wären” (roughly translated as “would have”)?

This is where the 3rd example from above jumps in.

As magical as it seems to me, in Plusquamperfekt, “hätten” can be combined directly with the original Modal Verbs, like können / sollen / müssen and the Verb in its infinitive form!

In other words, you can say “Ich hätte es tun sollen.” for “I should have done it.”, and “Du hättest es mir erzählen können.” for “You could have told me.”, without conjugating any other verbs but “hätten”.

Once again, I’m a bit grateful and happy with this!

Here’s a quick refresher on Plusquamperfekt with “hätten” and “wären”

• The correct form of HÄTTEN + Verb-Partizip II
• The correct form of WÄREN + gewesen / Verb-Partizip II (motion)
• The correct form of HÄTTEN + Verb-Infinitiv + Modal Verb (können / sollen / müssen)

Let’s Put It All Together

As a final summary and oversimplified take-away for this whole blog post, I attempted this mapping table for 4 different types of Conditional Sentences in 2 different languages of English and German:

I really hope this long article has been helpful in sheding some new lights into your learning and understanding of Conditional Sentences, as it has been for me.

I came out of this endeavor a lot clearer and more confident about this grammar structure for German than when I had just started having the idea for this post. I did self-learn and interpret most of these knowledges from grammar books and websites that I will link all below. Happy language learning!

https://www.germanveryeasy.com/conditional-clauses

https://www.schuelerhilfe.de/online-lernen/2-deutsch/878-indikativ-konjunktiv-i-und-ii

https://www.amazon.de/dp/013427525X?ref_=k4w_embed_dp_err&tag=googshopde-21