What is the usage of なら in this sentence: 予定を確認すると、次の週末なら二人とも空いていたので、急いで温泉旅館を予約しました

Question

予定を確認すると、次の週末なら二人とも空いていたので、急いで温泉旅館を予約しました。

I stumbled on this sentence, because I don't know how to translate "nara".

Usually, "nara" means "if", but in this sentence, if you translate it as "if" it will be weird, because the part following nara is in the past tense and has the particle ので at the end.

Besides, this sentence has three particles: と, なら and ので and when you put them together in one single sentence it makes it more complicated.

This is my translation to this sentence:

After confirming reservation, if next weekend, because we both had spare time, we gone to book spa hastily.

You see, the translation doesn't make sense, so there must be a particle I misunderstand.

Answer 1

予定を確認すると、次の週末なら二人とも空いていたので、急いで温泉旅館を予約しました。

→ When we(or I) check the schedule, the next weekend is empty for two of us, so we hurriedly made a reservation for onsen ryokan(hot spring hotel).

The meaning of「なら」in this sentence is to emphasize that

1. if it becomes next week, then both of us are empty with our schedules.

2. it it becomes other than next week, then nothing is sure. (Maybe we can adjust the schedule to each other, but it can be difficult.)

If I search for the usage of「なら」, there are much more details to be distinguished with its respective usage in Japanese. (Imagine when you explain someone the word 'if' in English.)

So the explanation of 「なら」that I've shown above can only go for the sentence you've posed on the question.

However if I try to generalize the meaning of 「なら」, I may interpret it as follows.

<~~~なら＞ → <If something is ~~~>