Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 10: 18/18

ば良(よ)かったShould have, I wish, It would have been better to

Structure

Verb［ば］+ よかった

Examples:
食(た)べる ￫ 食(た)べれば + よかった
飲(の)む ￫ 飲(の)めば + よかった
する ￫ すれば + よかった

Details

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    Standard

About ばよかった

ばよかった is a common expression used when someone regrets that something has not been/was not done. It is a pairing of the conjunction particle ば, and the past form of the い-Adjective, 良(い)い (remembering that conjugations of いい use よ, and not い). This construction is often translated to 'I wish I did (A)', or 'I should have done (A)'.

ばよかった is used after verbs, so requires the standard ば conjugation, before adding よかった.

As ば highlights hypothetical situations, ばよかった literally means that 'it would have been good if (A)', where (A) is the thing that the speaker wishes had happened.

Fun Fact

This grammar point is in direct contrast to ばいい, the non-past version, which is used to express 'it would be good if (A)'.

Related

Examples

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    次(つぎ)の電車(でんしゃ)を待(ま)てば良(よ)かったです。

    I should have waited for the next train.

    ゲームより勉強(べんきょう)をすれば良(よ)かったです。

    It would have been better to study rather than play games.

    天気予報(てんきよほう)を見(み)れば良(よ)かったです。

    I should have looked at the weather forecast.

    スーパーに行(い)った時(とき)、牛乳(ぎゅうにゅう)を買(か)えば良(よ)かった。

    I should have bought milk while I was at the store.

    寝(ね)ないで、日本語(にほんご)を勉強(べんきょう)すれば良(よ)かった。

    It would have been better to study Japanese rather than sleep.

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ばよかった – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (29 in total)

  • rin0108

    rin0108

    Very late but I would like to know this as well, it’s really bothering me LOL

  • testing

    testing

    Like @EbonyMidget mentioned it’s ないで (JLPT N4) | Bunpro. What’s missing from that article is that ないで can also have an “instead of” meaning.

    From A Handbook of Japanese Grammar:

    V-ないで (instead of)
    V-ないで is used to make a contrastive statement about two things. Means “do such-and-such instead of doing something else,” […].

    So:

    • 寝ないで、- instead of sleeping
    • 日本語を勉強 - learning Japanese
    • すればよかった。- would’ve been better
  • rin0108

    rin0108

    Oh okay, I see (idk how I missed that reply sry!). That explains a lot… I feel like that is a pretty important thing to include in the Grammar Point no? But thank you very much for the quick reply!

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