EnglishGrade 7ages 12–13

☔ If it rains, we will

English is one of the few places a future word like will can't follow if — the present tense goes there instead, even though the whole sentence is clearly about the future.

Updated September 23, 2026 · Maya Tutor

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What your child learns

The mistake most kids make here

Try one question

How Maya teaches it

Your child tells Maya what they did in class. She teaches this topic at her desk, asks questions with tappable answers, and when the answer is wrong she explains why that answer was tempting instead of saying “try again”. She remembers what did not land and comes back to it.

Your child has it when they can: Say: If it rains, we will stay.

How to help at home

The pattern is: if plus present tense, then will plus verb in the result. 'If it rains, we will stay' — present after if, will only in the second half.

'If it will rain' is a common slip, because the sentence is about the future, so reaching for will right after if feels natural — but English doesn't allow it there.

Practice a few pairs: 'If I am tired, I will sit. If it rains, we will stay home.' Notice will only ever shows up in the second half.

A good sign they've got it: even when talking about a clearly future event, they keep the present tense right after if.

Questions parents ask

Why does my child say 'if it will rain' instead of 'if it rains'?

Hebrew allows a future form after 'if' since the whole idea is about the future. English is different — the present tense goes right after if, and will is saved for the result that follows.

Where exactly does will go in this pattern?

Only in the second half of the sentence, the result: 'if it rains, we will stay.' It never follows if directly.

Does this apply to every kind of 'if' sentence?

This pattern — present after if, will in the result — covers the most common case: a realistic possibility about the future, like rain or being tired.

How does Maya teach this?

Maya gives a real future situation, like rain, and asks the child to choose the correctly formed sentence from several options, so the present-after-if pattern gets practiced directly.

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