nihongo wo benkyou shitai

First, a defintion:

condition [noun]: an assumption on which rests the validity or effect of something else

Japanese conditionals are the bane of my life. Never really understood which conditional to use and when, so time to take the bull by the horns... But before we do, I had to think about English first!

Let's consider some English conditionals:

If I eat ice-cream too quickly, I get a headache.

Here, we are talking about cause and effect. I get a headache because I ate too quickly and it is always the case. Getting a headache is a natural predictable consequence of eating ice-cream too quickly. This sentence could be written Whenever I eat ice-cream too quickly, I get a headache.


If I go to Japan, I want to eat okonomiyaki.

In this sentence the nuance is that I must first go to Japan, whereupon I can go about the task of eating okonomiyaki. I can't eat it before I have gone to Japan. It's important to note three things here: (1) Eating okonomiyaki is not a natural, predictable consequence of going to Japan, that is I could go to Japan and not eat it. (2) The important point is not that I go to Japan, but what I do when I get there. In other words the emphasis is on the result, not the condition. (3) The speaker is unlikely to being thinking about the opposite condition, namely if he doesn't go to Japan, he wont eat okonomiyaki. This sentence could be written When I go to Japan, I want to eat okonomiyaki.


If I finish watching Full Metal Panic tonight, I will be surprised.

Here the emphasis is on the condition itself. The important thing is what conditions need to be met to make me surprised. There is no guarantee that I will finish watching FMP - indeed, there is no guarantee that I will even watch it. However, if and only if I watch FMP and finish it I will be surprised. In other words the speaker is talking hypothetically. It's also important to note that we can easily form the opposite conditional here; namely that if I don't finish FMP, I won't be surprised. So, we could rewrite this sentence as If I were to finish watching Full Metal Panic tonight, I will be surprised (but if I don't, I wont).

So, there is a distinction in how conditional statements are put together and although it may not be 100% accurate, the following guidelines may help. Note, however, that appear to be additional constraints on their use, but the individual blog entries will look at those.

• If the main statement is a direct, natural or predictable result of the condition, use the Japanese と conditional.
  
• If the main statement is not a predictable outcome of the condition, but requires the condition to occur first and you want to emphasize the main statement, use the Japanese conditional たら.
  
• If speaking hypothetically, with more emphasis on the condition, or if there is a natural opposite condition use the ば conditional.