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Conditionals are used for communicating if/then scenarios. These sentences are made up of two clauses, the "if" clause that communicates an actual or hypothetical cause, and a main clause that gives a certain, likely, or hypothetical result of that cause. Either of these clauses may come first in the sentence. There are five main types of conditionals. Zero conditional is used for facts and situations of total certainty. It is formed with "If/when" + the present simple tense of the verb in the if clause and the present simple tense of the verb in the main clause, for example: "When two and three are added, the answer is five." First conditional is used for possible or likely future results based on a present condition. It is formed with "If" + the present simple tense of the verb in the if clause and "will" (or another modal verb such as "may," "might," or "could") + the base form of the verb in the main clause, for example: "If I come next week, we could go shopping together." Second conditional is used for the results of hypothetical situations that are uncertain or unlikely. It is formed with "If" + the past simple tense of the verb in the if clause and modals that indicate less certainty such as "would," "could," or "might" + the base form of the main verb in the main clause, for example: "Mike could travel the world if he sold all his possessions." Third conditional is used for the hypothetical past results of a hypothetical past action. It is formed with "If" + the past perfect form of the verb in the if clause and a modal verb such as "would," "could," or "might" + "have" + the past participle of the main verb in the main clause. (Note, even though "have" + the past participle of the main verb is used, this is not considered the present perfect tense because "have" does not change to "has" to agree with a third person singular subject of the clause.) An example of third conditional is "Steve might have won the race if he had trained before he ran it." Finally, mixed conditional is used for hypothetical past scenarios that would have led to a hypothetical present result. It is formed with "If" + the past perfect form of the verb in the if clause and the modal "would" + the base form of the verb in the main clause, for example: "If I hadn't wasted all my money when I was younger, I would be retired by now." Reported speech is used when what a person said is being communicated without actually quoting the person. The important thing to remember when changing direct speech (a quote) into reported speech is to "backshift" the tense to one tense backward in time because the conversation happened in the past about an action that happened in the past (unless we know that the action is still happening in the present, which would warrant an exception to the rule of backshifting). For example, the sentence, "Elizabeth said, 'Dogs are my favorite animal'" in direct speech would be backshifted to "Elizabeth said that dogs were her favorite animal" in reported speech. Time and place words also shift to past times and farther away places because the speaker of the reported speech is removed from the time and place of the original speaker. For example, the sentence, "Diep said, 'I am going to teach you to ride a motorbike when you visit here next year'" in direct speech would be shifted to "Diep told me he was going to teach me to ride a motorbike when I visited there the following year" in reported speech. In the case of both conditionals and reported speech, there are so many nuances in appropriate use that Activate phase activities must be chosen carefully to give students clarity in the types of instances in which each should be used.