Read each sentence with its instructions. Choose the correct answer from the options provided beneath each:
If you tell me the truth, I shall not punish you. (Use: ‘unless’)
Topic: Transformation — 'unless'
Try it
Pick an option and check your answer. The full worked answer is below either way.
Answer
(a) Unless you tell me the truth, I shall punish you..
UNLESS means IF NOT, so converting requires BOTH halves to flip: Original: IF you tell me the truth, I shall NOT punish you. Expand: IF you do NOT tell me the truth, I SHALL punish you. Unless: UNLESS you tell me the truth, I SHALL punish you.
Option (d) is the trap and is the commonest error: it simply replaces "if" with "unless" and leaves the rest alone, which now says that telling the truth will get you punished — the opposite of the original.
Options (b) and (c) swap the two clauses into nonsense.
THE TEST: after converting, read your answer and ask whether it gives the same promise or threat as the original. Here both versions must mean "tell the truth and you are safe".
Unless you tell me the truth, I shall punish you..