Questions tagged [conditionals]
条件表現. Also known as if-then constructions. In Japanese conditionals are expressed with one of と, ～(れ)ば, ～たら, なら(ば).
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Why are くる and する not exceptions for the conditional ば?
In modern Japanese, the 仮定形 of くる and する follow standard patterns: すれ and くれ. How come? Is it an accident? Is it linked to their 已然形? If so, was it already regular in classical Japanese (and maybe ...
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what does the sentence highlighted in blue mean?
I can't quite understand what the sentence means, specially the もし. it doesn't seem to be conditional, so why is it there?
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Does って have a conditional usage with verbs?
I was listening to a song (‘Found And Lost’ by Survive Said The Prophet) and the first lyric is:
「かかってこいよ」と叫んだってそう思っていない時もあってしまうんでしょ
I can understand the meaning of the sentence, however I’m a little ...
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Do ~ば conditionals have temporal requirements (in comparison to ~なら)?
I know that ~なら sentences are often provided as examples of Japanese conditionals which don't have temporal requirements. Thus,
AならB
(1) 乗るなら飲むな
(1) If it's the case that you're driving, don't drink (...
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たら - past/future vs future/future
Consider the following two sentences:
If you eat that, you will get sick. (you haven't eaten it yet)
If you ate that, you will get sick. (you have eaten it already, but you still feel OK)
My ...
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How can I accurately convey conditional statements using the various conditional forms like 〜たら, 〜なら, and 〜えば? [duplicate]
I often find myself hesitating when choosing between these forms in conversations or when writing.
I've noticed that native speakers use these forms differently based on the context, and I'd like to ...
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is verb ばいい + same verb ば some kind of grammar?
Over being asked "Will this work to measure the thing?" The character answers this:
知らねえ!
測れてりゃいい 測れてりゃ
Will the first one seems to be a ばいい, I'm unsure on how the second one is being used....
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Meaning of ば in the news
While watching this news I heard this sentence:
藤井八冠が“お菓子のふじい”を食べてくれればというのは、前から思っていまして、今後もぜひ活躍していただければと思います
I'm not sure about those ば's meaning: I was wondering if the second has an omitted いい, ...
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Does なればと思って have the implications of なればいいと思って?
大きな仕事がしたいと言ったお前の大きなチャレンジになればと思ってお願いしたんです
What is the exact nuance of なればと思ってin this sentence?
I understand it's "You said you wanted a big job, so thinking it'd be a big challenge for you, I gave ...
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What's up with the ば in this sentence?
泥棒は３０代半ばだったと思います。=>
"I think that the thief was in their mid-thirties."
I'm not sure what ば is doing in this sentence. It seems like it would translate the same (and be 'legal') without ...
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Difference between —るのでは and —たのでは
Are the following pairs of sentences equivalent?
1a そりゃ、落語を差向いで聞いたんじゃ、面白くもおかしくもない
1b そりゃ、落語を差向いで聞くんじゃ、面白くもおかしくもない
2a 店賃を払った上に小言を言われたんじゃぁ、間尺にあわねぇ
2b 店賃を払った上に小言を言われるんじゃぁ、間尺にあわねぇ
3a それでさ、...
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Understanding ~たのでは "Conditionals"
I recently came across a sentence containing ~たのでは I found quite hard to parse, and I wanted to focus more on just its ~たのでは aspect to make a more focused question.
So consider:
「彼が来なかったのでは、何も始まらない。」
...
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~乙女ならばともかく: Translation and grammar issue
I was reading The Tatami Galaxy, and I came across the following sentence:
うら若き乙女ならばともかく、二十歳過ぎたむさ苦しい男を誰が抱きしめてやりたいものか。[pg.295]
I know ~ともかく means "leaving aside", "never mind X,..." ...
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Does potential + ばいい has the same nuance of verb + ばいい
いいんだよ別に
こっちはおもしろい記事が書ければいいんだから
My understand of the sentence is akin to "It's fine, I won't mind. If I can write an interesting article it will be fine." The character is trying to gather ...
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Why does this sentence 「雨が降るかもしれないから、傘を持っていったら？」use いったら at the end, is this たら a conditional? [duplicate]
So basically I got this sentence
雨が降るかもしれないから、傘を持っていったら？
And my question is, is the たら at the end a conditional? If not what purpose does it serve?
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Meaning of とすればの話だが
ピーブズよりやっかいなのは...そんなのがいるとすればの話だが...管理人のアーグスフィルチだった。
The thing that was a bigger nuisance than Peeves...if there was such a thing... was the caretaker, Argus Filch.
I'm struggling to understand what ...
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Can I say 「もしアイスクリームを食べたら、お腹が痛くなったでしょう。」 to mean the third conditional in Japanese
So I know about the fact that Japanese doesn't have a literal equivalent to the third conditional of english.
But to say:
If I had eaten ice cream, my stomach would have hurt.
Can I say it in ...
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When あれば means "sometimes", does it still have a conditional interpretation?
In
彼女は優しいこともあれば、怖いこともある。
Sometimes my girlfriend is nice, but other times she's scary.
it appears that あれば is being used in a way that has nothing to do with conditionals. Is this the case? Or is ...
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What does 来てさえいれば mean in 「クリスマスに来てさえいれば、ケーキを食べられたのに」?
So I have this sentence:
[クリスマス]{くりすます}に[来]{き}てさえいれば、[ケーキ]{けーき}を[食]{た}べられたのに。
and I've been trying to puzzle what 来てさえいれば means. I know いれば is the conditional form of いる and きて is the te form of くる ...
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Historical/Linguistic explanation for the conditional in (seemingly) non-conditional situations?
In Japanese there are conditional sentences that translate well into the English conditional:
お金があればいいね。
It would be nice if I had money.
食べなければ病気になるよ。
If you don't eat you'll get sick.
These ...
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Past + として used in a sentence instead present [duplicate]
彼がうちの会社に来た理由を聞いたとして俺はどうする
返ってくるであろう答えも想像はつく
The character saw a friend at his company and now he's wondering why did he join? Did he do it for him?
I do know するとして is used for suppositions, but I don'...
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Is there some poetic license in 止めど or is it following classical grammar?
This line is from the lyrics of a song called TSUNAMI
止めど流る清か水よ
消せど燃ゆる魔性の火よ
I had to look up the dictionary to understand what ど does in that line, and found an entry with this example.
呼べど答へず、...
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Can 'if' be used with a 'meta' meaning in Japanese?
This is hard to explain in a title, so here is an example of what I mean. In English, we can say things like:
If you haven't noticed, the entry's actually over on the other side.
Noticing where the ...
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Can the なら conditional be used for your own actions?
I have seen なら used when drawing out a conclusion based on other person’s actions. (飲むなら乗るな) But I wonder if it can be used in a following fashion: if iťs the case that I… I must have… (as if one is ...
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I think I don't understand this sentence/maybe why the conditional form doesn't have something directly after it and before the と in this sentence
Context: A new school teacher doing her first ever parent teacher conferences hasn't been able to get in contact with the mother of one of her students. She has tried to contact the mother for weeks, ...
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Use of ていれば + だった
『公園では偶然にも彼と会った。少し焦ったけれど、自然に話していれば別に全然平気だった』
What is the specific use of ていれば in this? He's describing how at the park he meet a friend. He was a bit nervous on what he should talk/how he should act ...
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How is the ば form being used in this sentence?
他人への暴力を振るってしまうこともあれば、自傷行為にもなり、平常時ではありえないことを行ってしまう場合もある。
If you end up resorting to violence against other people, it will also result in self harm, and cases where you end up doing things unthinkable ...
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Purpose of なら in 小説を始め、本なら何でも読みます
The sentence
小説を始め、本なら何でも読みます
is taken from a grammar point in Bunpro and is translated as:
Starting with short novels, I read all kinds of books.
I understand that なら commonly appears in ...
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Conditional patterns: Why does this book say と isn't OK in these situations?
I believe several users here are familiar with the book 中上級を教える人のための日本語文法ハンドブック. My question is related to Chapter 30 in this book, which is about conditional patterns (たら, と, ば, なら, ...).
In this ...
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Don't understand fully how "なきゃよかった" means if ___ hadn't or if I hadn't ___
Is the なきゃ like referring to there not being something presently or something? Or is it more like [the hypothetical idea of not doing something][was good]...though even if it was that I don't think I ...
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〜たら for the perfect aspect / completed actions / resultative state
This is something I've noticed for a while but I want to be sure of it. I just encountered the sentence “準備したらおいで。” in context I'm fairly sure this means “Come when you're ready.” and I've encountered ...
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The construction and etymology of -たら
Ever since I learned that "if" and "when" can be used as translations for the -たら conditional form depending on the context, I have been looking for an explanation of its ...
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How adverb placement affects the meaning of conditionals
Consider
それならなにか、君のほうが正しいというのだな
Then something tells me you're right.
The thing that's tripping me up is the placement of なにか (which I'm assuming is acting as an adverb here). Why is this word ...
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ものなら's relationship to もの+なら?
Consider
夜遅く帰ろうものなら、家に入れてもらえません
If I come home late, he won't let me in.
Is ものなら its own word/grammar point, or is it just もの＋なら? E.g.:
If you're speaking of the thing of me coming home late, he ...
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Understanding いかが in 「先生もお使いになってみたらいかがですか。」
Consider
先生もお使いになってみたらいかがですか。
Sensei, how about you try using this?
Questions:
The も at the end of 先生も indicates "Teacher, how about you also try using this", correct? (Meaning that ...
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Do both -だったら and -なら conditionals act as "topic marking" conditionals?
In an IMABI tutorial on conditionals, the なら conditional is presented as something like a conditional topic marker:
なら is called the contextual conditional because it is equivalent to "if you ...
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Why past tense ~たら conditionals can't have actions performed intentionally by the speaker?
Consider
口を開いたらつい失礼なことを言った。
When I opened my mouth, I just said rude things.
Apparently this sentence is ungrammatical, since ~たら sentences in the past tense cannot have actions performed "...
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と vs. たら for Past Tense Conditionals
When learning about the ~たら conditional, it was presented to me as a conditional which has at least some degree of uncertainty (in contrast with と conditionals). So I was surprised to see it being ...
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Understanding 自由席ならあります
Consider
いいえ、売り切れましたが、自由席ならあります。
No, they are sold out, but we have unreserved seats.
Questions:
自由席 breaks down into "self-reason-seat" Kanji-wise. Does anyone know why this converts ...
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Why is どうせやるなら more standard than どうせやったら?
I was working through the N3 完全マスター textbook and there is an example that says 「どうせ ____、面白い仕事がしたい。」The correct answer is やるなら, but another option was やったら.
At first, I thought maybe the reason why ...
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How to interpret phrase order and tense with two conditionals in one statement?
In the Japanese version of the FFX-2 song "1000 Words," there are two lyrics styled as questions:
行かないでと涙こぼしたら?
待てないよと肩を落としたら？
My translations are:
行かないでと涙こぼしたら？ - What if I shed a tear ...
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Doubt about the たら conditional
From what I've learned when you used verb + たら, you are saying an if condition. While reading I came across:
起きたら生えてたの
which I interpretate as "When I woke up, (they) had (already) grew."
Is ...
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what does those sentences mean?
1:
どうあがけば人間が雷に勝てるというのだ
Here, I don't understand the どうあがけば and というのだ, what do they mean? Can someone explain to me the grammar and the usage here?
2:
空で育ったお前でも遠雷くらい見ていよう
What's with the 見ていよう? Why is ...
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たら conditional: verb+たら versus verb+ていたら
In this video, a native speaker is walking around Asakusa and describing his trip in simple sentences for learners. As he's walking, he finds an old drinking water spout, and says:
「で、歩いていたら、...
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～（よ）うものなら vs ～となったら
I encountered the following multiple-choice question on page 71 (question 5 in section "1~6") of my JLPT N2 grammar textbook 「新完全マスター文法 日本語能力試験Ｎ２」:
大きい地震が（ ）、この家はたちまち壊れてしまうだろう。
ａ ...
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Usage of 次第 with informal language (やる)
I encountered the following multiple-choice question on page 29 (question 10) of my JLPT N2 grammar textbook 「新完全マスター文法 日本語能力試験Ｎ２」:
佐藤君、今やっている作業が（ ）、山口君の方を手伝ってやってくれ。
１ 終われば ２ 終わった上で
３ 終わり次第 ...
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Doubt about third conditional sentence
This is a sentence from Death Note. The assassin has just said "I am victorious!" thinking his plan to kill everyone was successful. But being alive and still, the detective says:
あなたはさっき、...
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がいると? Condtional to express "When x is around"
I've seen this a few times lately and I wanted to make sure I get it. Most recently I saw it on a video with an animal's thoughts narrated. It said この人間がいると安心できない。I take this as meaning "When ...
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About conditional sentences in Japanese
Conditional sentence structures in English:
If I had X'd, I would(n't) have Y'd;
If I X'd, I would(n't) Y;
If I X, I will/won't Y.
Possible structures in Japanese (I got most of these from Google):
...
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English "would" and conditional in Japanese
So I'm familiar with many of the conditional forms in Japanese, と and なら and たら being common ones, but as I understand these only work in sentences with clauses and function in the role of English's &...
