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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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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Can someone give me a detailed difference between the conditionals to, tara, ba? [duplicate]
I have read a lot of answers from different sources about the differences between these conditionals (Ba. Tara, To) but I could not get a satisfactory answer. Could someone please help me understand ...
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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 &...
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一度（も・でも・さえ・こそ）会ったことがあれば、友だちだと考える人がいる
Japanese
「新完全マスター文法 日本語能力試験Ｎ３」という文法の教科書の１４８ページに、
次の文法問題が書いてあります。
一度（ ）会ったことがあれば、友だちだと考える人がいる。
１ も ２ でも ３ さえ ４ こそ
私は「３ さえ」を選びましたが、正解は「２ でも」です。
私の分析
この本の３２ページに、「３ さえ」について次の説明があります。
〜さえ〜ば…・〜...
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What would be the difference between 殺さなければ and 殺すのでもなければ?
「手前ェのしたことを心底思い知って、後悔して這いつくばって赦してくれって泣き喚いてんのをぶっ殺すんでもなきゃ、到底復讐にはならねえ。……けど、これだけ今まで恥知らずな真似ばっかりしてきやがった白ブタどもが、今更反乱だの皆殺しだの程度で反省なんかするわけもねえだろ。手前ェの無能と無策は棚に上げて、他の誰かの無能と無策を罵りながら悲劇の主人公気取って、被害者面してくたばるだけだ。……...
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Meaning of 思えば in 誰かと思えば [duplicate]
The context of the phrase is that two have not met in a long time just meet up and are talking to each other, the conversation goes like this:
Person 1 (The one who started the conversation): 久しぶりだな
...
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Do all verbs become Ichidan once in their Potential Form?
Question again from 君の名は manga:
“夢だけでも、男の子になれたらなぁ”
I'm unsure about my understanding of the verb conjugation.. is this the potential form of なる plus the conditional form ~たら.. ? Checking the rules to ...
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omitted particle を can make conditional?
The translator is a native speaker of Japanese. He translated the title 70億人の頭の上に風船を as, If I Could Put Balloons on 7 Billion People's Heads. However, another old translator who was removed for an ...
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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
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, ...
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たら at the end of a compound sentence
I'm wondering if there's a sentence:
AしてBしてCされたら
would the meaning be:
if A, B, C...
or
A, B, if C...
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〜たら by itself: 持っていってあげたら
How exactly is たら operating here? My understanding is that in the non-past, たら designates temporal antecedence.
赤ずきんちゃんが言います。「おばあちゃんの家に行きます。おばあちゃんが病気です。」
するとオオカミが言います。「あそこに花があるよ。花がたくさんあるよ。...
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are たときに and たら equivalent?
I was trying to say
I'll give you a chance when I learn to love again
I thought that I have to say something like
再び愛することを学んだら...何かする
because that time of learn how to love again will come for ...
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Does って have a conditional usage?
I came across this sentence:
そういえばさ、ここら辺に出るって噂のところがあるらしいじゃん？ 行ってみない？
I'm not so sure about the って usage in the 出るって part, so I checked the dictionary and found out that って can also indicate a ...
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conditional ば with だ？ [duplicate]
I found this:
でも、考えてみればだ。
Actually this is the first time I've seen a だ with a conditional together. What does it mean?
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What Does Not Count as an Action for the ば Conditional Clause
I'm here for yet another confusing thing from the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar. In the ば conditional, it states the following:
S2 can be a command, a request, or a suggestion, as in Exs. (e) and (f)...
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Having trouble making sense of the sentence "解いてから帰らないとすっきりしないんだ"
In the sentence 解いてから帰らないとすっきりしないんだ, from the context I know it means "If I don't go home after solving it, it won't be refreshing" but I just can't make sense of the grammar, below are the ...
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Why are these sentences with conditional forms not correct?
I'm struggling a lot with the use of conditional forms, especially using ～たら and ～なら. I recently had the following sentences corrected by my Japanese teacher:
a. 専門書を買ったら、私にも見せてください。
b. 専門書を買うなら、...
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Meaning of たりしたら
I was reading something and I found this thing attached to a verb. The sentence was this one:
ふと脇を見て、そこに洗濯物がたたんであったりしたら。
What meaning does it have?
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When to use としたら instead of たら for conditionals
When is it recommended to use としたら in place of simply たら? It seems that in many cases たら can serve the role of "if it you were..." so in what places do we need to use としたら? For example,
...
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Double conditional in same sentence? 「一人になれば不安になると。。。」
I was translating the song オレンジ by 7!! as an exercise, and I found the following sentence quite confusing:
一人になれば不安になると眠りたくない夜は話し続けていた
So far, I get that
一人になれば不安になる -> If I become (remain) ...
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Kansai variant(s) of ～しちゃ危ない／だめ
What would be some Kansai-ben equivalents to the following two sentences?
(a) 火遊びしちゃ危ないよ！
(b) 火遊びしちゃだめだよ！
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ぼうやったら Dragonball Vol1. 84
This is what the old country lady says when Goku "パンパン" her to check if she's a woman. Just before meeting Oolong for the first time.
What I can understand would be something like:
"...
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て form + なら meaning
I'm used to only seeing なら, when used with verbs, to be used with either the dictionary form or the た form of a verb, but recently I saw it with the て form
麻雀を通してならお姉ちゃんと話せる気がする
With a presumed ...
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What is the nuance of using 連用形 with すれば rather than other forms of conditionals?
Recently I came across
優希から直取りすれば逆転トップだぞ！？
And I was surprised to see it written like that rather than
優希から直取れば逆転トップだぞ！？
Is this a general thing that can be done with any 連用形 form of a verb? If ...
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Standard Formula for Past Counterfactual Conditional (what is the role of -te iru?)
What is the standard formula for making a counterfactual conditional sentence that talks about the past? That is, English conditionals that have this pattern: "If ..... had ..... , ..... would ...
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Use of だと when not quoting
Is だと used similarly to って or は but it also largely emphasises what's has come before it so that you can commented?
This is why I get a feeling of it meaning something along the lines of "This ...
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Understanding あるとは珍しい [duplicate]
「おおっ、こんなぜいたくな物がうちにあるとは珍しいね」
Oh, finding such luxurious presents at our place is unusual.
I'm a bit confused by the と in this sentence. I can only imagine that it is a conditional と. I guess "if ...
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Meaning of た form + なら
What I've studied is that in Japanese, you don't use past tenses in conditional sentences to express a lower probability (like if I were instead of if I am). I know there's a conditional formed with た ...
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What is the function of から in this sentence? [duplicate]
I found this sentence in the lyrics of a song:
振り返ればもう戻れないから
I don't understand the context and the function of から placed in this sentence.
The song is this:
http://m.kget.jp/lyric.php?song=260055
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Connotations of なら vs たら in conditional clauses
I am wondering about the choice of, and general necessity of, なら in the following sentence.
ドイツでは、ウイルスがうつらないように気をつけているなら、店を開くことができます。(from NHK Easy)
* In Germany, businesses may remain open if they ...
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How to translate this 点だった知識が線につながることを経験していただけたら幸いです
How should I interpret this?
点だった知識が線につながることを経験していただけたら幸いです
In my mind, mostly it seems like, based on -tara:
If 《 condition 》, then you are fortunate.
Or: when 《 condition 》, I am fortunate.
On ...
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What does '練習しなければ' mean on its own?
I found the following sentence in a Japanese textbook:
"明日の試合に勝ちたいなら、きっと練習しなければ。
If you want to win tomorrow's game, you must practice."
This was in a section to do with なら, there was no ...
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Is it considered natural to use ども (in the context of 'even if') in written or spoken Japanese today?
A beautiful thought by 小林先生 in 窓ぎわのトットちゃん is conveyed as follows:
世に恐るべきものは、目あれど美を知らず、耳あれども楽を聴かず、心あれども真を解せず。。。の類である。
I haven't seen this usage of ども much. How natural is it to use this form in ...
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