Reply to comment

I'm learning too. Thought I

I'm learning too. Thought I would give a shot at the answer, but please correct if wrong.

I think だったら refers back to something that has been stated earlier, and then makes a conditional phrase out of that previous statement.

an example conversation:

John: "I'm going to the store."
Mary: "If that's the case, pick up some milk."

In this example, "だったら" means "If what you said earlier is the case...", and refers back to "I'm going to the store". The full implied statement by Mary is:

"If you're going to the store, pick up some milk."


Reply

Important
Wait! Are you about to ask a question about Japanese? You will have a better chance of getting your question answered at the forum instead.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options