Japanese Nara Conditional: If That Is the Case, Here Is My Answer

The core idea: nara answers what is already on the table

Think of a conversation as a table. Someone puts something on it: I'm going to Kyoto this weekend. Nara is the word that picks that statement up and answers it: if you're going to Kyoto, leave early. The premise was handed over, and nara acknowledges the hand-over.

The premise does not have to be spoken. If your flatmate is yawning over a film, the situation has put sleepiness on the table. What follows nara is nearly always your own contribution: advice, permission, an offer, a request or a decision.

Below, a colleague mentions her weekend plan, then come two replies to things a speaker can simply see.

Noun plus nara: choosing a topic for advice

The simplest nara sentence needs no verb in the first half. A traveller asks the hotel receptionist where to eat sushi, and the receptionist answers sushi nara, ano mise ga oishii desu yo. Literally: if it is sushi, that shop is tasty. The traveller put sushi on the table, and nara turns it into the topic of the recommendation.

Why not simply use wa? Sushi wa would also set a topic, but it is neutral. Nara adds two things: it shows that the topic came from the other person, and it quietly limits the statement to that topic. That makes nara ideal for refusing one thing and offering another, as in the third and fourth rows.

In the last row the listener is looking for a person, and the second half is plain information, not advice.

How nara is built: plain forms, and no da

Nara follows the plain form. Verbs and i-adjectives need no change at all. Nouns and na-adjectives attach directly, without da.

The missing da has a reason. Nara began life as a conditional form of the copula, so gakusei nara already means if it is a student, and gakusei da nara would say is twice. Datta survives because something has to carry the past tense.

Politeness belongs to the end of the sentence. Keep the part before nara plain and make the final verb polite if the scene calls for it. Ikimasu nara is not standard.

Verb plus nara: the advice can come first in time

Here is the feature that sets nara apart from every other conditional. Because nara only accepts a premise, it says nothing about which event happens first. In Nihon ni iku nara, kamera o katta hō ga ii, the buying takes place before the trip. The plan to go is on the table now, so the advice applies now.

The last row is a well-known road safety slogan that shows both orders in one line. Literally, its second half says: if you will drive, do not drink.

Minimal pairs: nara beside tara and wa

Each pair below changes one element only.

Tara is built on the past form, so in the first pair the going is complete before the buying. Nara leaves the verb in its dictionary form: the going is still a plan, and the speaker acts on the plan.

The second pair shows where the knowledge comes from. With nara you are taking somebody's word for it. With tara you are waiting to find out. The overview of all four conditionals elsewhere on this blog sets them beside to and ba.

Beyond the basics: no nara and n nara

Put no between the plain form and nara and you get no nara, which shrinks to n nara in speech. Literally it means if it is that, and the explanatory no does what it always does: it points at a fact that is already in the air. Iku n nara feels like if you really are going, as it seems.

You will hear it most after verbs and i-adjectives. After nouns and na-adjectives, plain nara is the usual choice. In casual speech many people say n dattara in the same places, with no change in meaning. Below, a parent sees a child putting on shoes, a flatmate heads for the door, a customer hears a price, and someone learns that a colleague knew about a problem all along.

Why nara cannot state natural consequences

Nara needs a person who picks up a premise and answers it. When spring arrives and the cherry trees bloom, nobody is answering anything. So Haru ni naru nara, sakura ga sakimasu is wrong, and the same goes for machines and habits. Those belong to to and ba.

A second restriction has the same root. Nara treats its condition as a supposition: if it is the case that. Ten o'clock will come whether or not anyone supposes it, so Jū-ji ni naru nara, dekakemashō is also wrong. Events that are sure to arrive take tara.

The subject matter is not the problem. In the last row the forecast is the premise and the second half is a human decision, so nara is fine.

Common mistakes with nara and where they come from

The first mistake is using nara for a sequence. Eki ni tsuku nara, denwa shimasu is wrong for I'll call when I get to the station. English uses if and when loosely, so learners reach for whichever conditional they learnt last. Arriving must be completed before the call, so the sentence needs tara: eki ni tsuitara, denwa shimasu.

The second is adding da. Ashita ame da nara, ikimasen is wrong. Learners know that nara follows the plain form and that the plain form of a noun sentence ends in da, so they apply the rule one step too far. Drop it: ashita ame nara, ikimasen.

The third is the natural consequence. Fuyu ni naru nara, samuku narimasu is wrong, because winter does not answer anyone. Say fuyu ni naru to, samuku narimasu.

The fourth is grammatical but says the wrong thing. Someone who wants to advise buying a rail pass before the trip says Nihon ni ittara, pasu o katta hō ga ii. That tells the listener to buy it after arriving. When the advice must be acted on first, only nara works: Nihon ni iku nara, pasu o katta hō ga ii.

How nara sounds in conversation: sore nara, dattara and naraba

Sore nara, in that case, points at everything that was just said and opens a sentence in polite and casual speech alike. Among friends it shrinks to a bare nara, and dattara does the same job.

Naraba is the fuller form. It belongs to writing, notices and formal speech. One more habit is worth knowing: for conditions about your own circumstances, which nobody handed to you, many speakers prefer tara, as in jikan ga attara ikimasu. Dekiru nara, if possible, is a common exception.