Condition
What must be true for this to happen or apply?
المعنى
A condition makes one situation depend on another. It can describe a real possibility, a regular link, or a situation that is only imagined. Languages can use linking words or verb forms, and some leave the link to context without a separate condition marker. Unlike Imagined situations, Condition is about the link between two situations, not whether either one is real.
طريقة التعرّف عليه
Find the situation that must hold for another event to happen or another statement to apply.
في اللغة الأم
Arabic uses إنْ for an open condition and إذا commonly for an expected event or a repeated situation. With إنْ, present-form verbs in both parts can take the majzūm form, often with no final vowel or with final -n removed. After إذا, a past-form verb can refer to a future event rather than something that has already happened.
إنْ تصلْ مبكرًا، تجدْ مكانًا. (In taṣil mubakkiran, tajid makānan.)
Both verbs have the majzūm form, without their ordinary final -u.
إذا وصلتَ قبلَ الثامنةِ، فسنذهبُ معًا. (Idhā waṣalta qabla al-thāminati, fa-sa-nadhhabu maʿan.)
وصلتَ has a past form but refers to a future arrival; فـ introduces the result beginning with سـ.
في اللغة قيد التعلم
English commonly introduces conditions with if; unless means if ... not. For an ordinary future possibility, the if-part usually uses a present tense even when the other part uses will. For a less likely or imagined situation, English often uses a past form after if and would followed by the verb's base form, its form without endings, in the other part.
If it rains tomorrow, we'll eat inside.
Rains is a present form, but tomorrow makes the future time clear.
You can't use the pool unless you're a guest.
Unless you're a guest means if you're not a guest.
If I had a bigger kitchen, I would buy a larger table.
Had describes an imagined situation now, not a past event.
Learners whose language uses future forms in both parts may put will after if for a simple future condition. Learners whose language marks imagined situations with a special verb ending may not recognize that the past form after if can refer to now or later.