+- kanji koohii FORUM (http://forum.koohii.com)
+-- Forum: Learning Japanese (http://forum.koohii.com/forum-4.html)
+--- Forum: The Japanese language (http://forum.koohii.com/forum-10.html)
+--- Thread: ーば、－ら、なら、と、時 naunces (/thread-8082.html)
ーば、－ら、なら、と、時 naunces - DevvaR - 2011-07-12
For anyone who's been exposed to enough native Japanese, can anyone explain the times of when ーば、－ら、なら、と is used for 'if' and ーら、時 for 'when' and the 'feeling' or 'naunce' associated to each one.
Probably because I hadn't had enough exposure, but I've been trying to feel out the naunce for them but can't really feel much difference. So far the distinct naunces are for ーないと、indicating 'If I dont do it.../I better do it...' and Personならできる... indicated 'Cause it's that person/only that person can do it...' and also a few other small cases.
ーば、－ら、なら、と、時 naunces - Javizy - 2011-07-12
I remember A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar having a good section on this. Might be a good starting point. Since the usages can overlap, I think this is one area that's pretty hazardous to leave to exposure alone.
ーば、－ら、なら、と、時 naunces - yudantaiteki - 2011-07-12
In a very general and simple sense:
-tara is the most widely used.
-ba tends to focus on the first clause and indicate that it's *the* thing that leads to the conclusion. Negative phrases with -ba often can be translated with "unless..."
"to" indicates that the result is a natural result of the first part. The prototypical example is 春になると花が咲く。
EDIT: Also as a side note, the word is "nuance" (two syllables)