JLPT Conditionals: How to Choose と, ば, たら or なら

JLPT conditionals are one of the few grammar areas where every answer can look correct in English. と, ば, たら and なら all translate as "if" or "when", yet each one is built for a different situation, and the exam writes its wrong options to exploit exactly that. The good news: you do not need to memorise four long rule lists. You need one habit, which is to read the main clause (the part after the condition) before you choose.

The short version

Look at what the second half of the sentence does:

• It describes something that always happens or a natural result: use と.
• It states a general or hypothetical condition, usually without a command: use ば.
• It contains a request, invitation, command or the speaker's decision: use たら (or sometimes ば or なら).
• It responds to something the listener just said or a given situation: use なら.

Everything below explains why, with the traps that appear in N4 and N3 questions.

と: the automatic result

と connects two events where the second follows the first almost by nature: a law of nature, a habit, a machine behaving as designed, or a route.

春になると、桜が咲きます。

このボタンを押すと、ドアが開きます。

まっすぐ行くと、右に銀行があります。

The same と also reports a discovery in the past: you did something and found something.

窓を開けると、雪が降っていた。

Here is the rule that costs the most points. The main clause after と cannot be the speaker's will, a request, an invitation or a command. The result must simply happen.

✗ 駅に着くと、電話してください。

✓ 駅に着いたら、電話してください。

If you see ください, ましょう, たい, てほしい or a command form after the condition, と is almost certainly wrong.

ば: general conditions and "the more, the more"

The ば form is the most "logical" of the four. It states a condition under which something is true, and it works well for general truths, advice and hypotheticals.

安ければ、買います。

急げば、間に合います。

毎日練習すれば、上手になります。

Two points matter for the exam. First, ば is the form inside the fixed pattern 〜ば〜ほど ("the more... the more..."):

勉強すればするほど、日本語が面白くなる。

Second, when the condition clause contains an action (急げば, 練習すれば), the main clause normally cannot express the speaker's will or a request. When the condition is a state (ある, いい, 安い), a will or invitation is fine:

時間があれば、一緒に行きましょう。

This is why 時間があれば works with ましょう, while 急げば does not.

たら: the flexible one

たら is built on the past form of the verb plus ら, and it covers the widest range. It means "once that has happened" or "if that happens", and, unlike と, its main clause can be a request, an invitation, a wish or a command.

駅に着いたら、電話してください。

宿題が終わったら、遊びに行ってもいいですか。

雨が降ったら、試合は中止です。

It also reports discoveries, like と:

箱を開けたら、中は空っぽだった。

When two answer options look equally good and one of them is たら, test it first. If the main clause is a request or the speaker's decision, たら is the safest choice among the four. The price of this flexibility is that たら sounds slightly less formal and less "law-like" than ば or と in general statements.

なら: responding to a given situation

なら is different in kind. The other three describe what follows from a condition. なら takes something already known, usually what the listener has just said or what the situation shows, and gives advice or an opinion about it.

A: 来月、京都に行くつもりです。

B: 京都に行くなら、秋がおすすめですよ。

本を買うなら、駅前の店が安いです。

Notice the logic: B is not saying that going to Kyoto leads to autumn. B is saying "given that you are going to Kyoto, my advice is autumn". The なら clause is a premise taken from the conversation.

This also explains the timing difference. With なら, the main-clause action often happens before the condition:

日本へ行くなら、この本を読んでおいたほうがいい。

You read the book before going. With たら, the condition happens first: 日本へ行ったら、この本を読んでください means read it after you arrive. Exam questions that hinge on "before or after" are testing exactly this.

Side by side

Take one situation and change only the main clause:

春になると、花が咲く。

春になれば、花が咲く。

春になったら、花見に行きましょう。

春になるなら、コートはいらない。

The first two describe nature. The third has an invitation, so たら. The fourth is a reaction to a premise that someone has raised. Same condition, four different jobs.

How the JLPT tests this

At N4 and N3, conditionals appear in the grammar section, mostly as fill-in-the-blank items, and sometimes inside reading passages. Typical traps:

1. A request or invitation after と. Eliminate と at once.
2. An action verb in ば followed by the speaker's will. Eliminate ば, choose たら.
3. A reply to the other speaker's line. Choose なら.
4. A sentence about an unexpected finding in the past. と or たら, with a past-tense main clause.
5. 〜ば〜ほど. Only the ば form fits.

A practical method for any item: cover the options, read the main clause, decide what it expresses (result, advice, request, reaction), then uncover the options and pick. Do this and you are choosing by meaning, not by a feeling for how a sentence "sounds".

A five-minute drill

Try these before you read the answers below.

1. 雨が降る（　）、運動会は中止です。

2. 日本語を勉強する（　）、まず漢字から始めるといいですよ。

3. このスイッチを押す（　）、電気がつきます。

4. 分からないことがあっ（　）、質問してください。

Answers: 1 は たら (a decision about what happens; ば also works in general rules). 2 は なら (advice responding to the listener's plan). 3 は と (automatic result). 4 は たら (the main clause is a request).

The reason for each answer matters more than the answer. If you can say "request, so たら" without hesitation, you are ready for the real items. Write your own mistakes in a log and look for the pattern: most learners over-use と and under-use たら.

Using practice to lock it in

Conditionals do not stick from a single read. They stick when you meet the same distinction in many different sentences and get immediate feedback on why you were wrong. Toey's JLPT grammar practice is built around that loop, and its mock exams report section scores so you can see whether grammar is the section holding you back. It is a web app, with no mobile app yet.

Checked on 30 October 2026. Practise JLPT grammar on Toey