What would you do if you won the lottery? (English Listening Practice)
What would you do if you won the lottery? In this video lesson I've invited
Halima from Blackboard English to talk to us a little bit about what she would do if she won the lottery.
Friends, this natural conversation between me and Halima will help you better understand how to use
conditionals when speaking in English. To begin with, you will hear the natural conversation between
we'll analyse four sentences used in the natural conversation so that you can understand why that
conditional was used in that sentence.
Friends, before we begin this video lesson, I would love to hear from you. Tell me in the comments below this video:
What you would do if you won the lottery? Would you travel around the world, would you spend all that money?
Would you donate to charity? What would you do if you won the lottery?
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private online community. Back on topic and let's hear what Halima would do if she won
the lottery. While you're listening to this conversation,
please pay attention to the conditionals being used and how they are being used.
Halima, what would you do if you won, if you won the lottery?
If I won the lottery, I think I would, I would donate a big chunk of it to help other people.
Just because I think about... if I win something,
I, I mean something's good has happened to me, so I'd like to share that with somebody else.
That's the first thing. The second thing is I would travel. I would travel and
visit all the countries that I can with the money. It depends on how much I would win actually.
I just wanted to tell you how much you would win, and you are already
But if you won the lottery, maybe we should define it. How much, how much would you like to win?
One billion dollars wow, that's a lot of money.
I, I, I, I, I like teaching and I like helping people, so if I could do that
and not worry about money and not... And just do it from all the different parts of the world...
That would make me happy. You know, like worrying about money
makes things a little bit difficult, so... And not being able to travel because of how expensive it is.
give me access to travel, which is something that's very important to me.
Okay, but you say travel and when you...
Different people travel differently, so, I mean... Some people like to go backpacking,
some people like to cruise the world. I've been talking about my husband going on a river cruise throughout Europe. It's something
I'd love to do, but when you say traveling, how would you travel? Would you just
hop on and hop off flights or?
Oh, I would, I would, I'd probably do it in style.
So I mean, I don't really... I don't mind the struggle part of traveling, so hiking,
But when it comes to like the hardship part, I feel like it's unnecessary to
stay, for example, in a hostel full of like 20 other people.
I mean, why not just stay in, like, the best hotel in
the city or country that I'm visiting,
and have room service and let them take care of you, you know.
It's not there anymore, but they brought breakfast in the room, and they had amazing views and
having the luxury part, also. Like combining it with a little bit of hardship,
which includes actually going in and seeing everything.
Interesting, but how would you combine your donation and giving back you mentioned at the beginning with your luxury lifestyle? It seems that you'd
enjoying yourself. Yeah, but at the same time, like the countries that I visit I always
find people that I need. So like, say, for example, when I went to India, I saw a lot of poor people and,
and a lot of children that had no education, so,
that they can use to better themselves, because I think that's the way forward.
Having, giving somebody, giving children education just opens up so many doors for them, so I would definitely use the money,
the hypothetical money that you're giving me. I'm not giving it to you,
you play the lottery, so, you're technically gambling on this one.
So yeah, like, I would definitely use that money to, to help
educate as many children as I can.
Would you tell anyone that you won the lottery?
You know, give them things that they needed as well.
So,
the bills that I needed, buy my dad a new car...
So like cover all the expenses that they needed and
get them living in a, you know, comfortable lifestyle too. Because,
the people around you should be... So, if the people around you are struggling and
then you go off and like help other people,
I feel like that it doesn't help people around the world. First you have to, like, look around you, like,
check out your neighbors, see who's struggling around you, before you can actualy, like, go outside of that.
So, like, I would help my family first, like the people that are...
I, I have family in Kenya, so they're all like... there's a lot of people struggling there.
So I would help them first and then start like, maybe building schools around the world where I visit and like,
take time off and enjoy the scenery and then visit my schools all over the world.
Wow, it's a little bit of work and pleasure.
Yeah, exactly you can't just have pleasure, you need both, in my opinion.
But do you think you would be a happier person?
Do you think your life will be fulfilled if you won the lottery, 1 billion dollars?
I was thinking maybe it's a 1 million or two million, but ok, you've gone in the billions.
Would you be happier than you are today or yesterday?
I don't think I would be happier now because, I don't really,
I don't like give a lot of emphasis to money. I don't feel like, in my opinion, it has a lot of value.
Like it's just a means to an end for me and so.
It's not always something that I strive to have, like money is not something that... I see a lot of people
kind of get controlled by money, and that's what they're like, running for, or aiming for, but for me,
I, I, I'm not motivated by money at all. So if I did get it...
Yes, great, like, I'd be able to, like, do a lot more things, but at the same time...
We've got some background noise!
Yeah, at the same time, it would not define my happiness, definitely not. It's not something that
makes me happy. Like if... it, it's just paper and...
What... Do you know what I mean? It, it doesn't have much value, in my opinion.
It's just a means to an end and I feel like
people should look at money in this way because a lot of people are controlled by money, and they feel like if they get money,
Friends, if you stuggled to understand
and listen to the conversation again.
Now you would have noticed that many conditionals were being used.
Let's go through four sentences which came up together. In the
conversation, Halima said: If I won the lottery I would donate a big chunk of it to help other people.
Friends, here in this sentence
we can say that the second conditional is being used.
Remember that we use the second conditional to talk about things in the future that are probably not going to happen.
It would be fantastic for Halima to win the lottery and to be able to help other people, but in this situation,
We're using the second conditional because we're talking about hopes and dreams, the chances of her winning the lottery,
unfortunately, are not high. In the conversation, Halima
also said: I'd probably do it in style, if I had that much money. Careful
here: I'd is a contraction of I would.
It's more natural to say I'd when we're speaking in English,
and again here, the second condition is being used. Here, the second conditional is being used again, because we're talking about an
This sentence also differs from the first example as the inverted
the if clause is being used in the second part of the sentence. Here the sentence needs to be separated with a comma.
Halima also said: And they feel like if they get money, money will make them happy. Now, in this sentence, the first
conditional is being used. Of course,
we can't know what will happen if somebody will win the lottery,
but here in this sentence, if they get money, money will make them happy.
We're talking about a fact, so if they get money,
they will be happy. Remember those previous lessons we had in the conditionals. For example: If you touch fire, you get burned.
Here a similar situation, a similar condition is being used. So if you get money, you will be happy.
Now, analyzing the fourth sentence, I'd like to do it together. Have a look at this sentence here: If I did get it,
I'd be able to do a lot of things. What conditional do you think is being used in this sentence?
Tell me in the comments below this video. Friends, as you can see, if you're talking about winning the lottery, you have to be using
conditionals. This video lesson is only one section of the lesson materials using English TP members have received.
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