I am wondering about the choice of, and general necessity of, なら in the
following sentence.

> ドイツでは、ウイルスがうつらないように気をつけている **なら** 、店を開くことができます。(from [NHK
> Easy](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10012685971000/k10012685971000.html))
>
> * In Germany, businesses may remain open if they are careful not to spread
> the virus. (my trans.)

According to _DBJG_ , なら means roughly 'under the condition that something is
true'. How does this work in the context of the above sentence, in particular
why would たら not be appropriate, since (in my mind) any if-clause always
assumes its own validity.

Does the なら carry a sense of "actually" or "really" here? For example, would
it be more accurate to translate the sentence as " _... if the businesses are
really ensuring the virus doesn't spread_ "? Or does なら contain a sense of "
_so long as_ ", i.e. suggesting that the condition is liable to change over
time, " _...as long as the businesses are ensuring the virus doesn't spread._
"?
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2020-10-30T19:50:34.523
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2021-12-31T04:09:39.103
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question
translation word-choice conditionals
Connotations of なら vs たら in conditional clauses
Among the conditionals, the special thing with なら is that the preceding
(conditional) clause can happen in time after the succeeding (main) clause,
which is not the case for others like たら, where the first clause always
happens before the second.

So in the case of

> ウイルスがうつらないように気をつけているなら、店を開くことができます。

to imply that "being careful" happens after (or maybe rather during)
"remaining open", the only correct conditional is なら.

For an overview of the differences between all conditionals see [this
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/1784/40476).
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2020-12-02T10:54:33.877
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answer
It's a matter of BEFORE / AFTER.

なら is like BEFORE you do Y, the precondition X must be met. I tell my kids,
おそといくなら、くつはこうね！ "Before you can go outside, you have to put shoes on!"

たら is like AFTER you do Y, you must do Z. I say to my kids, ごはんたべたら、はをみがこうね。
When you are done eating dinner, brush your teeth.
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2021-05-02T05:56:04.950
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answer
I know it was taken from an NHK site but 気をつけているなら doesn’t sound too natural
to me.

I would say:

> ウイルスがうつらないように気をつけ **ていれば** 、店を開くことができます。

The article is deliberately written in easy Japanese so non-advanced learners
or foreign residents can understand. Maybe れば is not considered easy enough.

Besides, it is not very natural to understand 気をつけているなら as referring to
something that should happen **after** the opening of the shops as expected by
なら. This is because of the use of 〜ている. It would be more natural to understand
it as a current state (that obviously is expected to continue beyond the
opening of the shops), despite なら. This is precisely the reason I find
気をつけていれば more natural. If 気をつけているなら is to be interpreted as a future condition
for the opening of the shops, it does carry a sense of “as long as”.

The following sentence, with the combination of a dictionary form and なら,
would be naturally understood as a condition to be satisfied **after** the
opening of the shops.

> ウイルスがうつらないように気をつける **なら** 、店を開くことができます。

As for たら, the following sentence, with the combination of 〜ている and たら (i.e.
〜いていたら), is actually not that bad, although it is more common in certain
dialects than in standard Japanese.

> ウイルスがうつらないように気をつけ **ていたら** 、店を開くことができます。

The following, without 〜ている, is grammatical but it doesn’t convey the message
it is supposed to.

> ウイルスがうつらないように気をつけ **たら** 、店を開くことができます。

It sounds as if being careful not to spread the virus is a one-time thing that
should happen before the opening of the shops.
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2021-05-02T07:49:22.470
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answer