～ばいい・〜ばよかった

About

～ばいい is used to give advice or express one's hopes/desires. ～ばいい combines the conditional marker ば with the いい adjective いい ("good"), and can be thought of as "It would be good if you did X", or "I hope that X happens".

E.g. 野菜やさいをたくさん食たべればいいよ。 "You should eat lots of vegetables."

E.g. もうすぐ寝ねれればいいのに...... ”I wish I could go to sleep soon..."

～ばいい can be conjugated into the past tense (よかった) to form statements of regret, similar to "(I) should have X".

E.g. もっと野菜やさいを食たべればよかったな。"I should have eaten more vegetables."

Summary

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  ～ばいい is used to give advice or express one's hopes/desires (E.g. "You should.../I wish..."

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  ～ばよかった is used to form statements of regret (E.g. "I wish I had...")