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I am exercising conditional forms (I am still a beginner), and I have a bit of
a problem bending this case:

I want to say "If you will be living in Japan, it is recommended that you
learn Japanese."

Now if I write:

> 日本に住んでいるならば、日本語を学ぶことだ。

that would mean "If you are living in Japan, .."

if I want to underline the future tense, I should be using 住んでいます, right? But
how do I make condition with a -masu form of the verb?

So far, I've learned about:

-eba form, but that is (to my knowledge) used with the dictionary form of the verbs;

-naraba, which again is used with the dictionary form of the verb;

-tara, which is used with the informal past form.

Can I say:

> 日本に住んでいますならば、日本語を学ぶことだ。

How do I make conditional form of a verb in future tense?

Thank you for reading this far. Any help is appreciated.
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2015-10-16T19:38:59.377
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2015-10-17T04:32:26.803
2015-10-17T04:27:35.847
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question
grammar
Conditional form of future progressive
First of all, the tense you are looking for is what is often called the _non-
past_ , rather than _future_. In Japanese, the non-past form sort of doubles
as a present and future tense. (More about this here: [Would the plain form of
a verb usually be translated as future
tense?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1369/would-the-plain-
form-of-a-verb-usually-be-translated-as-future-tense/))

住む is the base, plain, dictionary form, and this is the non-past tense.
Attaching a 〜ます to make 住みます just makes it politer.

住んでいる is the _present progressive_ form of the verb 住む. Therefore, adding 〜ます
to make it 住んでいます will not turn it back to the non-past form. It's just a
politer way of saying 住んでいる.

As you have mentioned, 〜ならば is used with the dictionary form of the verb.
Luckily, the dictionary form is exactly what you want, because it _is_ the
non-past tense:

> 日本に住 **む** ならば、日本語 を学ぶことだ。  
>  If you (will) live in Japan, learn Japanese.

### Other examples:

  * 走る{はしる}ならば、スニーカーを履く{はく}ことだ。  
If you (will) run, wear sneakers.

  * 食べる{たべる}ならば、フォークを使う{つかう}ことだ。  
If you (will) eat, use a fork.
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2015-10-17T04:32:26.803
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answer