Future & conditional
Japanese has no future tense. The non-past form covers "I eat" and "I will eat", and time words do the rest — 明日食べます ashita tabemasu, "tomorrow I eat".
明日、東京に行きます — I'm going to Tokyo tomorrow. 雨が降ります — it will rain / it rains.
What Japanese does have is a rich set of conditionals — four of them, where English has one if. Choosing between them is one of the real skills of the language.
The four ifs
| form | built from | flavour |
|---|---|---|
| ~ば | stem + (e)ba | general condition, often hypothetical |
| ~たら | past form + ら | "when/once…" — the everyday one |
| ~と | dictionary + と | automatic consequence, natural law |
| ~なら | plain + なら | "if that's the case…" — picks up what was just said |
nom* + (e)ba → nomeba 飲めば
tabe + (r)eba → tabereba 食べれば
The (e) is the same secret vowel as everywhere else — see Present tense.
When to use which
| ボタンを押すと、ドアが開きます | Press the button and the door opens. (always true) |
| 時間があれば、行きます | If I have time, I'll go. (condition) |
| 東京に着いたら、電話します | When I arrive in Tokyo, I'll call. (sequence — this WILL happen) |
| 行くなら、傘を持って行って | If you're going [as you say], take an umbrella. |
たら is the safe default: it works for both "if" and "when", and it is what people actually say. と cannot be used for requests or intentions — ✗ 来ると、電話してください.
Counterfactuals
Past + ら, with a past main clause:
お金があったら、買ったのに — If I had money, I would have bought it. (…but I didn't.)
The のに at the end carries the regret. Without it the sentence just hangs.
"Will" as intention: volitional
| plain | polite | |
|---|---|---|
| let's / I shall | 食べよう tabeyō | 食べましょう |
| 飲もう nomō | 飲みましょう |
tabe + (y)ō → tabeyō
nom* + (y)ō → nomō
行きましょう — let's go. 手伝いましょうか — shall I help?
Add と思う for intention: 行こうと思います — I'm thinking of going / I intend to go.
Probability and hedging
Japanese hedges constantly, and these are how:
| ~でしょう | probably — 明日は雨でしょう (weather forecasts live on this) |
| ~かもしれません | might — 行くかもしれません |
| ~はずです | ought to, is supposed to — 来るはずです |
| ~そうです | I hear that… — 雨が降るそうです |
| ~ようです / みたいです | it seems — 疲れているようです |
Ending a prediction with a flat 降ります "it will rain" sounds oddly certain. でしょう is the normal register.
No "would" for politeness
Where English softens with would you, Japanese changes the verb ending instead: 〜ていただけませんか — "might I receive the favour of…". Politeness is grammatical here, not conditional.
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