ば
“It’s good if…”
Verb dictionary -う + えば
Adjective く form -う + えれば
Noun/な Adjective + であれば
ば means “If x, then good”. It is most commonly used to describe conditions needed for a good result.
ば places more emphasis on the action/adjective itself. You can think of this as emphasis on the “If“ part.
~ばいい
The most common type of pattern with ば is the ~ばいい pattern. It means “it’s good if you..”
The reason this is more common with ば, is because you are stressing what you need to do for a good result.
- 食べればいいよ。- It’s good if you eat it.
- 勉強すればいい – It’s good if you study.
- あやまればいい – It’s good if you apologize. (If you apologize, it’s good).
Any good thing can be used in place of いい. These tend to be states that will come to be. Because of this, the potential form is frequently used with ば.
- 飲めば楽になるよ – If you (choose to) drink it you’ll feel better
- 勉強すれば合格できる – If you (choose) to study, you can pass
- 合格すれば人生は楽になるよ – If you manage to pass, your life will become easy.
- 人にやさしくすれば、ともだちが作れるよ. – If you’re nice to people, you can make friends.
- あやまれば、許してもらえる – If you apologize, you can get him to forgive you.
- 人生が楽しければ、それでいい – If life its fun, that’s good (enough for me).
With the Past tense
Should have done X
Verb ば form + よかった
ば can be used with the past tense to describe what would have happened/been. It means something like “If X had done..”/ “I should have done X”. Any good thing may be substituted for よかった。
- 勉強すればよかった – It would have been good if I had studied.
- 食べておけばよかった – It would have been good If I had ate (in preparation).
- 飲めば楽になっただろう – I probably would have felt better if I had drank it.
Negatives
“If not x, then it’s good”
Plain Negative Verb: ない→なければ
Negative い Adjective: ない→なければ
Nouns: じゃなければ
ば may also be used with negatives, by treating the ない form of a verb or adjective as an い adjective.
- 厳しくなければいい。- It’d be good if it’s not hard.
- 食べなければよかった – It would have been good if I hadn’t ate it.
- 知らなければいいこと. – Something that would be good to not know.