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Languages Study | Languages of the East | Japanese III

ÀÓÄÈÎ 409 | GRAMMAR II - 13.05 : nara

 
Grammar II - 13.05 Grammar L4 - 007 Menu - Grammar
なら nara
 

A statement of the form "noun A なら predicate X"
says that the predicate X applies only to A and is not more generally valid. 
The main ideas of a なら - nara sentence, in other words, are "limitation" and "contrast".

   
 

Situation 1:
Q:ブラジルに行ったことがありますか。 Have you ever been to Brazil?
burajiru-ni itta koto ga arimasu ka?  
A:メキシコなら行ったことがありますが、
ブラジルは行ったことがありません。 		I've been to Mexico,
but never been to Brazil
mekishiko nara itta koto ga arimasu ga,
burajiru-wa itta koto-ga arimasen.		  
   
 

You can optionally keep the particle ni before nara in this example.
Particles such as ni, de, and kara may, but do not have to,
intervene between the noun and nara, while ha [wa], ga, and wo [o] never go with nara.
   
  Situation 2:
日本語がわかりますか。 Do you understand Japanese?

nihon-go-ga wakarimasu ka?

  
ひらがなならわかります。 If it is in hiragana, yes.
hiragana nara, wakarimasu.  

nara introduces a sentence that says something "positive" about the item that is contrasted.
In the first situation above, nara puts Mexico in a positive light, and in contrast with Brazil, which the question was originally about.
In the second situation, a smaller part, namely hiragana, is brought up and contrasted with a larger area, namely, the language as a whole.