The Interpretation of English Conditional Sentences by Arabic Native Speakers

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate Arabic native speakers interpretation of English conditional sentences and to find out the reasons behind that. Conditional sentences are considered one of the most difficult issues for nonnative speakers of English. They form an obstacle for both learners and teachers. The complexity of conditional sentences comes from the fact that they contain two clauses to express complex meaning using complex structure. Moreover, generally, the students spend their time learning the three main types of conditional sentences, i.e. if she comes, I will leave; if she came, I would leave; if she had come, I would have left. Consequently, they are not aware of many other variations within conditional sentences. One hundred subjects enrolled in the test. All were third year students majoring in English. Ten conditional sentences were given to them and they were asked to decide whether these sentences are grammatical or not and to correct the ungrammatical ones. It turns out that the students are not aware of such variations in conditional sentences.