~tara for a past tense clause

pacerier · (#1 (**permalink**))

Ok I have no idea why my previous thread wouldn't display: http://www.japanforum.com/forum/japa...se-clause.html

But here it is:

Hi all, I read in a book that says when we use ~たら for a past tense clause, it means "when".

So for example 喫茶店に行ったら、鈴木さんに出会った。 means "When I went to the coffee shop, I saw Suzuki.

I'm curious why couldn't the sentence above mean "If i had went to the coffee shop, i would have seen Suzuki" ?

KyleGoetz · (#2 (**permalink**))

It could. You might make the latter case clearer with a だろう or はずだ at the end, though.
喫茶店に行ったら、鈴木さんに出会ったはずだ。

masaegu · (#3 (**permalink**))

No, it could not.

「行ったら」　cannot mean "If I had gone".

「喫茶店に行っていたら、鈴木さんに出会っていただろう。」

In casual speech, the two underlined 「い」 would often be dropped.

pacerier · (#4 (**permalink**))

Oic, thanks for the clarification =D

Btw I'm curious why couldn't the sentence mean "If I had went to the coffee shop, I would have seen Suzuki" ?

masaegu · (#5 (**permalink**))

Because your sentence has no elements of subjunctive mood.

pacerier · (#6 (**permalink**))

Ok

, I'm not sure I understand about the subjunctive part though, how could we add "subjunctive mood" to the sentence 「喫茶店に行ったら、鈴木さんに出会った。」 ?

masaegu · (#7 (**permalink**))

Just read my sentence carefully. It has "if I had gone" and "I would have" in it.

KyleGoetz · (#8 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by masaegu

No, it could not.

「行ったら」　cannot mean "If I had gone".

「喫茶店に行っていたら、鈴木さんに出会っていただろう。」

In casual speech, the two underlined 「い」 would often be dropped.

Interesting. It's always nice to see there's some aspect of what I'd consider a "simple" grammar point that I haven't internalized!