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

--:--

    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 (27 in total)

  • mrnoone

    mrnoone

    English translation:
    should have, it would have been better if

    Structure:
    Verb[ ば ]+ よかった（のに）

    Explanation:
    [Aばよかった, used when speaker/writer regrets not doing A]

    View on Bunpro

  • conan

    conan

    I forget which all ones ya’ll know are duplicates, but jic:

    https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/163
    https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/208

    They have different related grammar, just to note. As well as the のに addition on the second.

  • s1212z

    s1212z

    I see no distinctions here, @mrnoone why is this separated?

  • conan

    conan

    It’s an accident, there are a couple grammar points on here with dupes.

  • eefara

    eefara

    You guys are probably already aware, but just in case: this grammar point currently only has three example sentences.

  • PowerAWBS

    PowerAWBS

    Echoing @eefara, @mrnoone, I do find it odd that this grammar point only has three example sentences, in comparison to the others, which have like eight or something.

    Was this intentional?

  • nekoyama

    nekoyama

    For some reason this grammar point is split in two. They link to the same thread but this thread links back to the one with more than three…

    https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/163
    https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/208

  • PowerAWBS

    PowerAWBS

  • darkness_rising

    darkness_rising

    Bump; I am also confused why this has two grammar points with different explanations, example sentences, resources, etc.

  • flowsnake

    flowsnake

    I asked and got this answer:

    Pushindawood: Hey! Thank you for your report! There are three duplicate grammar points that we are aware of. Unfortunately, we cannot simply remove them as many users have created content associated with both versions (notes and self-study questions). Once we have found the best way to merge the duplicates, while preserving user-generated content and integrating the additional sentences into everyone’s reviews, we will do that. Thank you for your patience as we figure out how to go about this. Cheers!

  • jpace335

    jpace335

    Why doesn’t this work with ~たら?

  • Ambo100

    Ambo100

    I hope this gets fixed, I thought my memory was failing when as I’d thought I’d studied it already, makes sense now.

  • shary

    shary

    Similar question.

    I got the following message from bunpro: “Nice guess! たら works the same way and means pretty much the same thing, however Bunpro is looking for another conditional.”

    So according to this message it seems that たらよかった does exists. Moreover, you can find exemples sentences on tatoeba and weblio:

  • albcasahu

    albcasahu

    I was wondering if ~なければよかった would mean “I wish I hadn’t/ I shouldn’t have”?

    There’s no mention of it in the explanation and there are no examples using the negative. I couldn’t find a separate grammar point either. I found that odd since they have an explanation for “ないほうがいい” and "なくて/ないで ・よかった. "

    Is this a thing or is there a different way to say “I shouldn’t have”?

  • mrnoone

    mrnoone

    @albcasahu

    Hey and sorry for the very slow answer!
    Yes, なければよかった is a thing and is used! It can be contracted to なきゃよかった in casual speech.

    I will add information about this to the grammar point.

    Example sentence:
    給料全部を漫画フィギュアに使わなければよかったなぁ。
    I wish I had not spend my entire salary on the manga figurines…

    Cheers

  • testing

    testing

    Why does the “寝ないで” in “寝ないで、日本語を勉強すればよかった。” mean “rather than sleep”? Is that the “but (contrast)” from https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/verbて-b?

  • EbonyMidget

    EbonyMidget

  • Yryrdz

    Yryrdz

    One of the example sentences for this version of the grammar point is "私のパスコンを持ってくればよかった。” For some reason the listed translation is “You should have brought my computer along.” I don’t understand where the implication of someone else bringing something is coming from and not the person themselves regretting they didn’t bring the computer.

  • gyroninja

    gyroninja

    The implication is coming from the subsidiary verb くれる.
    持つ to bring
    持ってくれる to bring for me
    持ってくれば if you bring for me

    Also there is typo パスコン → パソコン

  • Yryrdz

    Yryrdz

    Oh, duh. I guess I misread that as "来る“。Thank you.

    edit: I see why now: shouldn’t the hiragana there be ”くれる”？

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