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A statement of the form "noun A なら predicate X"
says that the predicate X applies
only to A and is not more generally valid.
The main ideas of a
なら - nara sentence, in other words, are "limitation" and "contrast".
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Situation 1: |
| Q:ブラジルに行ったことがありますか。
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Have
you ever been to Brazil? |
| burajiru-ni itta koto ga arimasu ka? |
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A:メキシコなら行ったことがありますが、
ブラジルは行ったことがありません。
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I've been to Mexico,
but never been to Brazil
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mekishiko nara itta koto ga arimasu ga,
burajiru-wa itta koto-ga arimasen. |
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You can optionally keep the particle ni
before nara in this example.
Particles such as ni, de, and
kara may, but do
not have to,
intervene between the noun and nara, while
ha [wa],
ga, and wo [o] never go with nara. |
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Situation 2: |
| 日本語がわかりますか。 |
Do you understand Japanese? |
|
nihon-go-ga wakarimasu ka? |
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| ひらがなならわかります。 |
If it is in hiragana, yes. |
| hiragana nara, wakarimasu. |
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nara introduces a sentence that says
something "positive" about the item that is contrasted.
In the first situation above,
nara puts Mexico in a
positive light, and in contrast with Brazil, which the
question was originally about.
In the second situation, a smaller part, namely
hiragana,
is brought up and contrasted with a larger area, namely, the
language as a whole. |