[aDoBJG] A - D 💮 A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

Japanese Language Book Clubs
42

I’m still looking at other things and the entries from the Intermediate and Advanced Dictionaries, so feel free to comment if I made a mistake somewhere:

Thoughts on ば

  • Rather than a conjunction like English, it acts more like a helper verb+conjunction hybrid and is the conditional form of words. It makes something conditional, similar to “if” but behaves like other helper verbs(i.e. ます,ない, せる/させる [causative], よう[volitional], れる/られる[受け身 receptive form or as it’s deceptively translated in most books “passive”])

  • Note to self: counterfactual conditionals = what would have been true under different conditions

  • To summarize differences between ば and other conditionals:
    と “if/when” but it is exclusive and only has one outcome (one possibility with one outcome)
    たら when an event happens, a following event happened/will happen
    なら “since it’s___/ if it’s___”

Helpful resources/videos on ば and other conditionals
Organic Japanese with Cure Dolly - can't recommend Cure Dolly enough, treated Japanese as Japanese rather than teaching it as if it was English. The video format can be tough for some to tolerate.

CureDolly Textbook by dinuz - basically all her lessons in a Google Document. If you like Cure Dolly’s lessons, I recommend saving a copy and typing in personal notes.
Lesson 31: The ば Conditional
Lesson 30: Japanese Conditionals and と
Lesson 32: Conditionals made clear! たら、なら

Miku Real Japanese

ば form/Conditional form YouTube link
This lesson is mainly in English and she does the thing where she asks questions and gives a pause for you to respond before giving an answer.

Thoughts on ばかり

  • Can be said colloquially as ばっか(always casual) or ばっかり(used in polite and casual speech)
  • Works very similarly to “just”, but often has negative connotations
  • It is a particle = postposition = similar to a preposition, but instead of coming before, it follows after.
  • Differences between ばかり and other words:
    だけ expresses a limit
    しか technically the opposite of だけ, means more than, but is always in negative sentences so it really means “no more than”
    のみ basically だけ, just used in formal situations
    だらけ only used with nouns, almost always negative connotations, means “full of (things I don’t like)” or “covered with (something I don’t like)”
ばかり resources

Cure Dolly Lesson 27 ばかり meanings
Lesson 33: だけ,しか,ばかり,のみ

Miku Real Japanese 【N3】てばかり｜ばかりいる｜だらけvsばかり
Lesson mainly in Japanese, but has English subs that have Japanese subs and plain Japanese subs. She also uses really relatable examples.

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