Soumatome 20 Lessons JLPT N4 Grammar Lesson 15: Conditional forms: たら, ば, なら, と

Can be used with nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

This use occurs only with verbs (V).

V: Change to the た-form, then add ら (Vた + ら)
い-adjective: Remove い and add かったら
な-adjective: Add だったら
Noun: Add だったら

A wide variety of forms can follow たら; generally there is no prohibited form unless the meaning makes it unsuitable.

Verbs and い-adjectives use ～ば; な-adjectives and nouns use ～なら(ば).

「ば」
• Group 1 verbs: final う-row → え-row + ば; negative: remove い from ない-form + ければ
• Group 2: remove る + れば; negative as above
• Group 3: する→すれば, 来る→来れば; しない→しなければ, 来ない→来なければ
• い-adjectives: remove い + ければ; exception いい→よければ
「なら」
• な-adjectives / nouns: add なら; negative ～じゃないなら / ～でなければ

When an ～ば clause contains an action verb, the main clause normally avoids volition, requests, commands, and invitations. This is not an absolute ban when the ～ば clause expresses a state or a condition outside the speaker’s control—for example with ある, いる, 要る, adjectives, negative forms, or potential forms; the main clause may then express desire or volition when semantically appropriate. ～なら also commonly permits volitional main clauses.

Commonly used for natural phenomena, operating machines, directions, habits, rules, etc., where the result follows naturally or inevitably.

Used with verbs, い-adjectives, な-adjectives, and nouns. Note: な-adjectives and nouns retain だ.

The following clause cannot use volitional, request, command, invitation, permission, etc. forms.
Not used: ～ましょう, ませんか, しよう, ～てもいい, ～てください, ～なければなりません, なさい...

～なら is used after receiving information about a situation, state, thing, or event from the other person, and then responding based on that information.

～のなら takes a situation as a premise and gives a judgment, opinion, or response based on it, often meaning “if it really is the case that…”. With な-adjectives and nouns, use ～なのなら.

Exceptions: Remove な from な-adjectives and だ from nouns.