Editing Conditional sentence (section)

{{Short description|Sentences expressing factual implications, or hypothetical situations and their consequences}}
{{For|the noncustodial punishment for a crime in Canada|Conditional sentence (Canada)}}

A '''conditional sentence''' is a sentence in a [[natural language]] that expresses that one thing is [[Contingency (philosophy)|contingent]] on another, e.g., "If it rains, the picnic will be cancelled." They are so called because the impact of the sentence’s [[main clause]] is ''conditional'' on a [[subordinate clause]]. A full conditional thus contains two clauses: the subordinate clause, called the ''antecedent'' (or ''protasis'' or ''if-clause''), which expresses the condition, and the main clause, called the ''consequent'' (or ''apodosis'' or ''then-clause'') expressing the result.

To form conditional sentences, languages use a variety of grammatical forms and constructions. The forms of [[verb]]s used in the antecedent and consequent are often subject to particular rules as regards their [[grammatical tense|tense]], [[grammatical aspect|aspect]], and [[grammatical mood|mood]]. Many languages have a specialized type of verb form called the [[conditional mood]] – broadly equivalent in meaning to the English "would (do something)" – for use in some types of conditional sentences.