文法の説明

N4 レッスン 3: 15/18

ならWere it, If, If it's the case, As for (Conditional)

なら replaces だ when used with nouns or な-adjectives

使い方・接続

Verb＋（の）＋なら（ば）
［い］Adjective＋（の）＋なら（ば）
［な］Adjective＋なら（ば）
Noun＋なら（ば）

詳細

  • 使用域

    一般

「なら」の情報

As mentioned in our lesson about ば, なら is often used by itself to mean 'if'. This is considered to be an abbreviation of ならば, the hypothetical form of なり, a classical auxiliary verb that is not used much in modern Japanese.

Because なり originally meant 'to be', it functions in a similar way to the auxiliary verb だ. This means that it regularly pairs with nouns, or phrases that have been nominalized (become noun-like), through the use of の.

However, unlike だ (or です), なら is also regularly used without the extra help of の for nominalization, and can be attached directly to verbs or い-Adjectives.

Caution

Because なら is an abbreviation of ならば, it is strictly used when making guesses about what 'may', or what 'could' happen in certain situations. This means that it will not be used as 'if' in statements about results that are produced through some sort of effort/training.

Fun Fact

Although なら comes from the classical auxiliary verb なり, it should not be confused with the particle なり, which often has the meaning of 'as soon as', or 'just after'. Thankfully, the particle なり is also quite uncommon in modern Japanese.

関連

例文

--:--

    君(きみ)なら、できる。

    If it's you, you can do it. (if it is the case)

    そういうことなら、聞(き)かなくていい。

    If it's something like that, you don't have to ask. (in the case of)

    宿題(しゅくだい)が難(むずか)しいなら、一緒(いっしょ)にしよう。

    If the homework is hard, let's do it together. (if it is the case)

    また行(い)くなら、帰(かえ)って来(こ)ないでください。

    If you are going to go again, please don't come back. (in the case of)

    暑(あつ)いなら、扇風機(せんぷうき)を点(つ)けてください。

    If it's the case that it is hot, please turn on the fan.

  • ご登録いただくと、より多くの例文にアクセスできます。

    プレミアムユーザーは全文法ポイントに含まれる12個の例文にアクセスすることできます。

自作の例文

自分なりの勉強をする！

文章を追加し、Bunproの文章と一緒に勉強する。

「なら」に関する文法ディスカッション

最近の返信 (合計20件)

  • mrnoone

    mrnoone

    if
    if it’s the case
    as for

    Structure

    • Verb + (の) なら
    • い-Adjective + (の) なら
    • な-Adjective + (の) なら
    • Noun + (の) なら

    なら does not attach to nouns or な-adjectives with だ

    [condition + なら + result]
    [Adding の before なら further emphasizes what comes before it]

    View on Bunpro

  • GregX999

    GregX999

    I think the hint for this question…

    image.png746×182 14.4 KB

    …is a bit confusing as のばあいは ...
  • mrnoone

    mrnoone

    Hey

    I have changed the wording to “if it’s the case”

    なら is often used in reaction to someone statement, when speaker wants to give advice, or opinion.

    「熱いなぁ」(It’s hoooot)
    「熱いなら、扇風機を点けてください」
    If it’s the case that it is hot, please turn on the fan.

  • Ambo100

    Ambo100

    The grammar resource for Misa links to the video for と (part 1) but perhaps it would be better to link to part 3 for なら?

  • Pushindawood

    Pushindawood

    @Ambo100 Much better! Thank you for letting us know so that we could update the Readings section. Cheers!

  • rwmleach

    rwmleach

    Can anyone help me out with the phrase “condition in context”? I’m not really understanding what that means.

  • mrnoone

    mrnoone

    Hey and welcome on the community forums

    Just think of it as condition, I have changed it on the site too.

    Cheers!

  • lifev1

    lifev1

    I study grammar on Bunpro following Genki path. In Genki (lesson 13) they explain なら as :

    A statement of the form “noun A なら predicate X” says that predicate X applies only to A and is not more generally valid.

    I’m struggling to connect this explanation with Bunpro one. Is it a completely different grammar point?

  • Ducklingscap

    Ducklingscap

    I’m also confused by this.

  • zyoeru

    zyoeru

    @lifev1 @Ducklingscap

    I don’t know if you’ll see this but here’s how I understand it (also following Genki).

    Genki is only using one of なら’s uses and that’s to answer a question counterfactually to contrast the question and provide an indirect response which isn’t rude. They explain this as:

    BunPro restate this as:

    A remains the same but B is used instead of X on BunPro.

    The Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar also say this about this way of using なら:

  • Howl_UK

    Howl_UK

    This was a great video on the differences between たら and なら.

  • JoaoPLF

    JoaoPLF

    I’ve watched a couple of videos about たら and なら and I think I’m getting the idea of how they work, but some sentences sound confusing to me.

    また行（い）くなら、帰（かえ）って来（こ）ないでください。

    This one was in my review today. From my understanding, not coming back would happen after the person going, so I’d have to use また行ったら. Or do we use なら because it’s a request?

    田舎（いなか）に住（す）んだら 、車（くるま）が必要（ひつよう）です。

    Correct me if I’m wrong on this one, but from what I understood, 住んだら means that the person is already living in the countryside. If I say 住むな...

  • marlowe

    marlowe

    Love Miku

  • marlowe

    marlowe

    What do OK Noun and NG Noun mean? I’ve never seen those terms before.

  • gyroninja

    gyroninja

    OK comes from okay and NG comes from no good.
    You can use the stuff marked as OK, but you shouldn’t use the stuff marked as NG.

  • marlowe

    marlowe

    Ah okay, so basically it’s saying that " Noun + は・が・を + なら" cannot be used?

  • yannick

    yannick

    this was extremely helpful, thx a lot!

  • onekun

    onekun

    From my understanding, 「なら」is more of an “if” and 「たら」is more of a “when,” is this right? I need some more explanation into the nuance.

    I haven’t learned 「もし」yet but it’s my assumption that you can append it to the start of a sentence if the if/when dichotomy is unclear. Though I’m more concerned about how 「なら」and 「たら」relate to each other by themselves, when should I use one over the other?

  • nekoyama

    nekoyama

    もし can be used with hypotheticals to reinforce that nuance. Reinforcing that something is hypothetical means you’re less certain about it. For example, you’ll often see もし in expressions like “もしよかったら…” because the speaker doesn’t want to presume how the other party feels.

    If we’re comparing なら and たら only, then the biggest difference is that the sequence of events is reversed.
    In “AたらB”, event B occurs after event A. “Once/when/if A happens, then B.”
    In “AならB”, event A can occur after event B but not before it. “If A is/were/will be the case, then B”.

    I found this example on Amazon (as a sticker):

    飲んだら乗るな - don’t drive if you drank something
    乗るなら飲むな - if you’re going to drive, don’t drink

    From a learne...

  • onekun

    onekun

    This reply is an excellent resource, I think I got the basic difference down, but I’ll reference it if I ever get confused. Bookmarked.

    So would you use と and ば instead? How would you construct that?

    I would ask what the nuance is with と vs ば, but it’d fit better in one of their respective threads and I could almost infinitely ask about nuance so I don’t want to kill you with grammar questions, haha.

「なら」について質問がありますか？ 話し合ったり、質問をしてみんなで学びましょう！

ディスカッションに参加する