Close menu
23

Unit 23: Great expectations!
First conditional

Select a unit

  1. 1 Nice to meet you!
  2. 2 What to wear
  3. 3 Like this, like that
  4. 4 The daily grind
  5. 5 Christmas every day
  6. 6 Great achievers
  7. 7 The Titanic
  8. 8 Travel
  9. 9 The big wedding
  10. 10 Sunny's job hunt
  11. 11 The bucket list
  12. 12 Moving and migration
  13. 13 Welcome to BBC Broadcasting House
  14. 14 New Year, New Project
  15. 15 From Handel to Hendrix
  16. 16 What's the weather like?
  17. 17 The Digital Revolution
  18. 18 A detective story
  19. 19 A place to live
  20. 20 The Cult of Celebrity
  21. 21 Welcome to your new job
  22. 22 Beyond the planets
  23. 23 Great expectations!
  24. 24 Eco-tourism
  25. 25 Moving house
  26. 26 It must be love
  27. 27 Job hunting success... and failure
  28. 28 Speeding into the future
  29. 29 Lost arts
  30. 30 Tales of survival

Session 3

What will the baby be called? Will it look like the mother or the father? What will it be good at? We listen to some excited parents-to-be talking about their babies.

Sessions in this unit

12345

Session 3 score

0 / 8

  • 0 / 8
    Activity 1
  1. Activity 1

Activity 1

If he takes after me...

Parents-to-be

These three people are all expecting children. Listen to them talk about what their children might be like.

To do

Try to answer these questions while you listen:

  • Who is good at maths and science?
  • What is the name of Sue's husband's grandfather?
  • Who has ginger hair?

Listen to the audio and complete the activity

Show transcript Hide transcript

Dave
My wife's in the family way - she's seven months pregnant and we know it's a boy. If he's anything like me he'll be good at football, rugby, cricket - he'll be a fantastic all-round sportsman - it runs in my family. My wife's the intelligent one - if he takes after her he'll be good at maths and science and all that kind of boring stuff. But if he is into education and not the sports, I won't be disappointed - I'll help him develop his natural skills.

Sue
My husband and I are expecting our second child. If it's a girl, we'll name her after my mother, Penelope. If it's a boy, my husband wants to call him Archibald after his grandfather. I think it's quite a strange name though. If it is a boy, I think I'll make a list of other names for my husband to choose from. If we do call him Archibald, he might have trouble when he goes to school. Children can be very mean, and I don't think that will change in the near future. I think he'll have a much easier time if we call him something normal, like Eugene or Lesley.

Mark
It's very exciting - my wife's due in two weeks, so we'll be hearing the pitter patter of tiny feet very soon. If our daughter takes after my wife's side of the family, she'll have dark hair. But everyone on my side of the family is ginger. I'll be quite pleased if she is ginger too, but I don't mind if she isn't. As long as she's healthy and happy we'll all be very pleased.

Did you get the answers right?

  • Who is good at Maths and Science? Dave's wife.
  • What is the name of Sue's husband's grandfather? Archibald.
  • Who has ginger hair? Mark, and everyone on his side of the family. 

Time for a grammar recap...

We use the first conditional to talk about possible future situations (or 'conditions') and their possible results. We use if with present simple to talk about a possible future situation, and will with an infinitive to talk about its possible result.

If I visit London, I'll stay with friends.

We can use when instead of if to show that the future situation is definitely going to happen. We can use modals (may, might) instead of will if we are less certain of the result.

Download

You can download the audio here (size: 2.49MB).

True false quiz

8 Questions

Which of these statements are true and which are false?

Congratulations you completed the Quiz
Excellent! Great job! Bad luck! You scored:
x / y

End of Session 3

That's it for this session. You've listened to people talking about their babies using the first conditional. You’ve also seen some useful language for discussing families, skills, names and appearance.

Join us again in Session 4 when we go global! You’ll find out about the cost of having a child in different countries, and we'd like to hear from you about childbirth traditions where you live.

Session Grammar

  • First conditional
    We use if with present simple to talk about a possible future situation, and will with an infinitive to talk about its possible result.

    If I visit London, I'll stay with friends.

    We can use when instead of if to show that the future situation is definitely going to happen.

    We can use modals (may, might) instead of will if we are less certain of the result.

View full grammar reference

Session Vocabulary

  • parents-to-be
    people who will soon become mothers or fathers

    expecting
    (here) waiting for a baby to be born

    ginger
    (here) dark orange in colour

    in the family way
    (informal) pregnant

    fantastic
    very good

    runs in my family
    a quality that many people in the family have

    takes after
    is similar to an older relative

    natural skills
    things someone quickly becomes good at

    call him after (someone)
    give him the same name as another person in honour of them

    due
    (here) expected to give birth

    hearing the pitter patter of tiny feet very soon
    pregnant

     

View full vocabulary reference

Download centre

Latest course content