How to say if and when in Japanese with たら

Level B1

How to say if and when in Japanese with たら

You have a plan for Saturday, but what if it rains? In this lesson you say what you'll do in that case, and what you'll do once something you expect has happened. Both use one Japanese pattern, 〜たら, built on a form you already know: the plain past.

New words: rain and たら

English says “it rains”, with an empty “it”. Japanese names what falls: 雨 (ame, rain), が and 降る (furu, to fall), so 雨が降る (ame ga furu) is literally “rain falls”. たら (tara) is this lesson's pattern: the word list gives “once”, which is only one of the ways to translate it.

  • 雨(あめ)rain
  • 雨(あめ)が降(ふ)るrain
  • たらonce

Review: the plain past

Everything here starts from the plain past, the form that replaces ました among friends: 飲んだ, 行った, 食べた. 降る follows the same idea: 降った (futta) in plain speech, 降りました (furimashita) in polite speech. Say these sentences aloud, because the next step adds just one syllable to that form.

Model: a plan and the weather

Listen once without reading. Someone intends to go to the beach (行くつもりです, “I intend to go”) and is asked what happens if it rains; 予定 (yotei) in the next question means “plan”. Then look at two sentences built the same way: the rain in 雨が降ったら may never come, while the breakfast in 朝ご飯を食べたら is simply the first thing on the morning's list.

If it happens: 〜たら

Take the plain past and add ら: 降った becomes 降ったら (futtara), “if it rains”. The second part says what follows: a question (どうしますか, “what will you do?”), a plan (日曜日に行く予定です, “the plan is to go on Sunday”) or what won't be possible (海に行けません, “I can't go to the beach”). In everyday speech the first part stays plain even when the sentence ends politely, so the ending alone sets the tone: among friends it's 雨が降ったら、どうする？. In the たら part, a subject you name normally takes が, as in 雨が, not は.

〜た／〜だら、…

Once it has happened: the same 〜たら

The same form works for something you expect to happen. Then it means “once” or “when”, and the second part comes after it. The recipe doesn't change: 食べたら, 飲んだら (with だ, as in 飲んだ), 行ったら, 買ったら, and 来たら, read きたら (kitara). The second part can also be a wish (食べたいです), a suggestion (行きましょう) or a request (来てください). A person named as doing the first action normally takes が too: アナさんが来たら.

〜た／〜だら、…

If or once? The context tells you

Compare 雨が降ったら with 朝ご飯を食べたら: the grammar is identical. Nobody knows whether it will rain, but you expect to have breakfast, so English picks “if” for one and “once” for the other, while Japanese leaves that to the situation. Nor does 降ったら put the rain in the past: 昨日、雨が降りました reports yesterday, but 明日雨が降ったら is about tomorrow. Here the た form only shows that the first event comes before the second.

Japanese has other ways to say “if”, and they aren't free synonyms of たら. This lesson gives you one pattern for one job: the second part says what comes after the first.

Your turn, and a summary

Imagine your plan for Sunday is the park. Cover the sentences below, say your plan with 予定, say what rain would change, then say what you'll do once you've had breakfast; only then check. In short: plain past + ら, then what comes after. Whether you read it as “if” or “once” depends on whether the first event is only possible or expected.

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