Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 8: 1/18

たらWhen, From when, Just when, If

Structure

Verb[た]+
[い]Adjective[た]+
[な]Adjective + だった +
Noun + だった +

Details

  • Standard

About たら

The conjunction particle たら is used as a kind of 'halfway point' between 'if' and 'when' in Japanese. It expresses the completion of an (A) action, and then a (B) action that is considered to be the result of (A). It may be hypothetical, or it may be presenting a one-time result of something that happened in the past.

To use たら, it will replace た in the simple past form of verbs, い-Adjectives, な-Adjectives, and nouns.

Caution

Despite appearing to be the past form of the word that it is attached to, たら itself does not actually carry the nuance of 'past'. Other words in the sentence will need to be examined to see whether たら is truly highlighting something from the past, or simply the completion of something (which may or may not happen in the future).

Fun Fact

Although たら is regularly used to mean 'if', it almost always has a nuance of 'when'. This is due to たら specifically highlighting the following situations:

Completion: 完了(かんりょう) - Completion of (A).

Materialization: 成立(せいりつ) - Coming to fruition of (A).

These meanings are opposed to other 'if' structures like , and なら, which focus far more strongly on the hypothetical 'if' meaning.



Examples

--:--

  • 勉強(べんきょう)したら、テスト簡単(かんたん)になる

    When you study, the test will become easy. (if・from when)

  • (ちゃ)(あじ)(うす)かったら()てください

    Please let me know if the tea is weak. (if・just when)

  • もし()べに()きたかったら()こう

    If/when you want to go out to eat, let's go! (from when)

  • 週末(しゅうまつ)だったら時間(じかん)あります

    If/when it is the weekend, I have time. (from when・just when)

  • (から)かったら牛乳(ぎゅうにゅう)()んでください。

    If it is spicy, please drink some milk. (from when・just when)

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たら – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (36 in total)

  • IcyIceBear

    IcyIceBear

    Because that’s how たら is used, past tense with a ら

  • Warrie

    Warrie

    Oh my. Completely missed that one. Thank you so much, spent an hour googling for an answer

  • killhour

    killhour

    I think this has been talked about before, but even though the grammar point talks about how たら can be used for something that has already happened and had a one time result, none of the example sentences show this. I found one doing this as an example sentence for 棚, and it confused me so much, I had to look up the grammar point again.

    整理をしていたらおつかった。

    I think it would be good to have some examples of this in the grammar point to reinforce it.

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