"Clear" - You Should Learn the "~Ba ii" Form

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Original Lyrics / Romaji / Phrasal Translation

About the Song

the Indigo's music has an warm, coffee-house feel that's like making sweet love to a cashmere sweater. You just want to curl up in the smooth melodies and lyrics and take a nice, relaxing nap.

the Indigo isn't well known outside of Japan - perhaps only known for their work on anime soundtracks such as Ai Yori Aoshi and Someday's Dreamers. But they also have an extensive catalog of (shock!) non-anime music going back to 2000 that is worth checking out, particularly if you enjoy the musical equivalent of a scented candle giving you a relaxing back rub.

What fans might not know is that the Indigo has also penned a good number of songs for mega group AKB48 (over 30 songs if we include branch groups such as NMB48). Which explains why I sometimes hear AKB48 songs that don't make me want to kill myself.

Clear appeared on the soundtrack of Someday's Dreamers (the entire OST is a treasure), although it was not released as a single. That honor went to UNDER THE BLUE SKY, another lovely song. However, Clear does have some excellent examples of the critical ~ba verb form, which we will look at today!


[Today's Topic: You Should Learn the "~Ba ii" (～ばいい) Form is after the jump]

Today's Topic: You Should Learn the "~Ba ii" (～ばいい) Form

To learn "~ba ii," we're going to start with "~ba" verbs. Here's a handy chart!

Base Form	"Ba" Form	Base Form	"Ba" Form
買う	買えば	Kau	Kaeba
書く	書けば	Kaku	Kakeba
降ろす	降ろせば	Orosu	Oroseba
立つ	立てば	Tatsu	Tateba
やめる	やめれば	Yameru	Yamereba
食べる	食べれば	Taberu	Tabereba
する	すれば	Suru	Sureba
来る	来れば	Kuru	Kureba

"~Ba" is one of the easier verb forms – just switch the last "u" of the verb to an "e" and add "ba." "Kau" becomes "kaeba", "kaku" becomes "kakeba" and so on as shown in the above chart.

Unlike most verb forms, there is no difference between Class 1 verbs (aka "U Verbs") and Class 2 verbs (aka "Ru Verbs") - just switch the ~u to ~eba and you're done!

Now let's talk about what ba verbs mean.

The ba form is what's known as a "conditional," which is a fancy way of saying "if."

Translation	Kanji	Romaji
If you had money, you could buy anything.	お金があれば、何でも買える。	Okane ga areba, nandemo kaeru.
If we go in the morning, it will be cheaper.	午前中に行けば、安くなります。	Gozenchuu ni ikeba, yasuku narimasu.
If there are no questions, we'll finish for the day,	質問がなければ、今日終わりにしましょう。	Shitsumon nakereba, kyou owari ni shimashou.

There are a lot of ins and outs to the ~ba form, but today we're going to focus on one usage in particular - "~ba ii". Instead of bogging you down with every single nuance of every single case, for now, you should learn the ~ba ii form.

This is my sneaky way of teaching you something else about Japanese studying - start with something small and see where it leads you instead of trying to digest all of the rules at once. Use what you know to discover what you don't know and learn more!

Let's look at some examples of ~ba ii sentences from today's song:

Kanji	Romaji	Translation
自分を見つければいい	Jibun wo mitsukereba ii	You should find yourself.
答えを探せればいい	Kotae wo sagasereba ii	You should look for the answer.

I've cut these lines out of their original context so we can focus on the grammar. Let's break it down even further and look at the words:

Kanji	Romaji	Translation
自分	Jibun	Self, myself, yourself, etc.
を	Wo	(Particle)
見つければ	Mitsukereba	to find (if)
いい	Ii	Good

So going with a very literal, Google Translate-esque reading, we get "Self if find good," or "If you find yourself, it's good" (or "If I find myself, it's good" because the subject is not explicitly stated).

This, of course, is where overly literal translation fails. When we combine a ~ba form verb with ii, the verb becomes something you should do, not something that is simply good to do

自分を見つければいい → Jibun wo mitsukereba ii → You should find yourself

We can also apply this to 答えを探せればいい :

答えを探せればいい → Kotae wo sagasereba ii → You should search for the answer

Note: Again, the subject is not explicitly stated, so this could be I should search for the answer, depending on context.

Note: I put "the answer," but this could just as easily be "an answer" or "answers" Again, it's impossible to say without looking at the context.

While ~Ba ii falls somewhere between a suggestion (it would be good for you to do this) and a command (you better do this), it is not the most aggressive of command forms (see this post for some more commanding command forms), The strength of the command mostly comes from context rather than an inherent aggressiveness (contrast with ~nasai, for example).

When you're ready to try a little translation of your own, you should use our remaining two examples from Clear:

Kanji	Romaji	Translation
素直に伝えればいい	Sunao ni tsutaereba ii
明日に向ければいい	Ashita ni mukaereba ii

That's all for this time. I'm sure you still have questions about ~ba form or Japanese grammar in general, but that's okay. Like Clear says, 答えを探せればいい . You should keep looking for those answers, and keep StudyOkeing!