～ば: Conditionals 1 (Conditional Form)

Introduction

If you understand the contents of this lesson, you will have seriously leveled up your Japanese... That's right, this one's all about "if". Strap in folks.

If you can understand what I'm saying, bark twice!

This is one of those big, important lessons, like the て-form or potential conjugation. You'll look back on your life after you complete this one and think to yourself, "How did I get by?"

But before we dive into the main focus of this lesson, we need to cement our understanding of some underlying concepts.

What's the point of a conditional statement?

It's easy to take the power of "if" for granted. As English speakers, we throw around "if" statements like there's no tomorrow. But in order to master conditional statements in another language, it's useful to think about why we would want to make these statements in the first place.