nihongo wo benkyou shitai

日本語：	[clause A (base 1/3)] と [clause B]
日本語：	[clause A (adjective)] と [clause B]
日本語：	[clause A (noun)] と [clause B]
English:	If/Whenever [clause A], [clause B]...

Today, we'll look at another conditional in common usage. If like me you have the memory of a goldfish and have forgotten the previous blog entries on conditionals, you may want to check out the overview and the discussion on ば.

I've seen the と conditional described as the natural consequence conditional indicating that the events in clause B will definitely happen or there is a high expectation that they will happen, when the scenario described in clause A comes about. As such, the English whenever could be seen as a more descriptive definition of this conditional.

Clause A should be in non-past, so for verbs we're looking at base 1 (simple negative) or base 3 (simple non-past). Clause B can be either past or non-past. Here is a good example of it's use that came up recently on this very blog:

写真をクリックすると大きくなります。

What we are saying here is that the natural consequence of clicking on the picture is that it will become bigger. Of course, the Internet link could die just at that moment, but the expectation is that a big picture will appear. The ばconditional we looked at the other day really doesn't feel right here; there we suggested that the use of ば implied that (1) there is no indication that the event in clause A will occur, (2) the focus is on the condition, not the outcome and (3) the speaker is considering the opposite scenario. In the example sentence above, the focus is more on the outcome (a bigger picture appearing) and also, it seems unnatural to be thinking but if you don't click on it....

Here's another example I got off my Japanese teacher a while ago (her examples were always very strange!):

でも、遠くはなれていると二人の気持ちもはなれると思う。

Again, the ば conditional would seem odd here; there is no indication that that we will be far apart (although this sentence would probably have been uttered as part of a larger conversation), however the focus is more on the consequence of being separated by a great distance. Also, the speaker is unlikely to be thinking but if we're not separated by a great distance....

OK, an example from the Internet. It was really tough to find it, considering just how many things とcan mean! Therefore only one example.

Example 1:

This one is taken from here.

日本語：	蜂に刺されると痛いだけでなく、体質によってはアレルギー反応によるショック症状を起こす人がいます。
Jenglish:	[bee] [be stabbed] [when] [painful] [not just, but also] [constitution] [according to] [allergy] [reaction] [due to/by means of] [shock] [symptoms] [P] [cause] [people] [there are]

On the face of it, this seems pretty straight-forward to translate. At the end of the sentence we have 人がいます following a verb phrase in base 3, so I'm guessing that we have a subjunctive clause here (that's posh for a sentence that describes a noun). We also have によって, which I remember as another form of によると. Other than that it was an exercise in vocabulary. So, it think this translates as There are people that when stung by a bee, it's not only painful but also, depending upon their constitution they may have shock symptoms due to an allergic reaction.

またね・・・