Conditional Sentences in a Business Context | Business English B2

Conditionals are everywhere in professional English.

Proposals, negotiations, forecasts, and risk assessments all use them.

Second conditional — hypothetical present or future

• “If we reduced the price by 10%, we would see higher volume.”
• “If our competitor entered the market, we would need to review strategy.”

Third conditional — hypothetical past

• “If we had launched in Q1, we would have captured a larger share.”

Mixed conditional — past cause, present result

• “If we had invested earlier, we would be in a stronger position now.”

Business use cases

• Risk: “If the supplier delivers late, production would stall.”
• Proposal: “If you approved an extra budget of X, we could achieve Y.”
• Reflection: “If we had involved the team earlier, we might have avoided this.”

Practice

Write one conditional sentence each for: a risk, a proposal, and a reflection on a past project.