11.5 Si Clauses lesson ... is it really so?

I am thinking hard about Si clauses, a stuff of if-then structure.  Something like this:
Si je ne suis pas malade, je ne vais pas chez le médecin.
This is translated as:
If I am not sick, I am not going to the doctor.
I could translate the sentence by replacing the "if" with "since", and do so in every sentence in the lesson. Such replacement gives a slightly different meaning, sometimes a more logical one.  For instance:
Si tu es réveillé, fais moi du café s’il te plaît
translated as "If you are awake, make me some coffee please." would sound more logical if translated as "since you are awake ..."
I accept that the translations are most likely perfect.  But can anyone tell me how would some of the sentences look in order to have the "since" meaning?
Thank you,
Vit Novak 
 

Salut Vit !

"Since" and "if" are indeed very close to each other in meaning, but they are not the exact same. Si in French doesn't exactly correspond to "since," so it's best to only think of si as "if" in sentences like these.

French actually has a few ways to express "since," including puisque "since," comme "as / seeing as / since," and vu que "given that / since." For example:

Puisque tu es réveillé, fais-moi du café, s'il te plaît. 
"Since you're awake, make me some coffee, please."

Comme tu es réveillé, fais-moi du café, s'il te plaît.
"Seeing as you're awake, make me some coffee, please."

Vu que tu es réveillé, fais-moi du café, s'il te plaît.
"Given that you're awake, make me some coffee, please."

For the sentence Si tu es réveillé, fais-moi du café, s’il te plaît (which I've added a missing hyphen to), the use of si "if" might sound more natural if you think of it being used in a specific situation. For instance, if you're lying in bed and you hear a family member moving around in the house, you might call out something like: "Hey, if you're up already, make me some coffee, please."

I hope that this was helpful!

Bon courage,

Liss