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> いいえ、売り切れましたが、自由席ならあります。
>
> No, they are sold out, but we have unreserved seats.

**Questions:**

  1. 自由席 breaks down into "self-reason-seat" Kanji-wise. Does anyone know why this converts into a meaning of "unreserved seat"? (Maybe something like: "the _reason_ of _myself_ being here justifies that this _seat_ is mine")?
  2. The phrase "自由席ならあります" literally means something like "if it's an unreserved seat, it exists", correct? (More idiomatically: "if it's an unreserved seat [you want], it's [here for you]").
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2023-01-05T01:51:52.130
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conditionals
Understanding 自由席ならあります
1. [自由](https://jisho.org/search/%E8%87%AA%E7%94%B1) is a common word that means _free(dom)_ or _liberty_. 自由席 means a seat anyone can take _freely_ without a reservation. The history of the word 自由 itself is explained in [this section](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%87%AA%E7%94%B1#%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E8%A8%B3) of Japanese Wikipedia (basically it's a [wasei-kango](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-kango) coined to translate English _liberty_ ). I think "self-reasoning" is not too far from the idea of liberty.
  2. Yes. This type of なら is very common.
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