* When "dekireba" or "dekitara" is placed at the beginning of a sentence, is the subject always "you" as in "if you can/if possible", or can it be "I" as in "if I can/if I have the permission to do"?

  * How can I say in Japanese:

> If I can, I would like to ask you a question
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2012-07-18T18:59:49.520
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2012-07-19T07:48:34.970
2012-07-19T00:40:07.380
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translation
dekireba/dekitara
In principle (syntactically), there in no restriction to the subject, but at
the beginning of a sentence, they tend to mean that the subject of the
conditional clause is the second person as you mention. In this context, it is
better to use よろしければ "if it is okay with you", お邪魔でなければ "if it does not bother
you", 問題なければ "if it is not a problem", etc.
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2012-07-19T00:45:31.447
6178
2012-07-19T00:45:31.447
6175
answer
Three sample uses, that show the differences.

できればやってくさい: if you can do it, do it for me.

できたら、教えてください: when you're done with it, tell me.

よければ、一緒に行きましょう: if possible, let's go together.
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2012-07-19T06:12:25.140
6182
2012-07-19T06:12:25.140
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answer