We are talking about the future. We are thinking about a particular condition or situation in the future, and the result of this condition. There is a real possibility that this condition will happen. For example, it is morning. You are at home. You plan to play tennis this afternoon. But there are some clouds in the sky. Imagine that it rains. What will you do?

IF conditionresult
present simpleWILL + base verb
If it rainsI will stay at home.

Notice that we are thinking about a future condition. It is not raining yet. But the sky is cloudy and you think that it could rain. We use the present simple tense to talk about the possible future condition. We use WILL + base verb to talk about the possible future result. The important thing about the first conditional is that there is a real possibility that the condition will happen. Here are some more examples (do you remember the two basic structures: [IF condition result] and [result IF condition]?):

IF conditionresult
present simpleWILL + base verb
If I see MaryI will tell her.
If Tara is free tomorrowhe will invite her.
If they do not pass their examtheir teacher will be sad.
If it rains tomorrowwill you stay at home?
If it rains tomorrow what will you do?


result IFcondition
WILL + base verb present simple
I will tell Mary ifI see her.
He will invite Tara ifshe is free tomorrow.
Their teacher will be sad ifthey do not pass their exam.
Will you stay at home ifit rains tomorrow?
What will you do if it rains tomorrow?

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