The ばの形 or provisional 形 indicates conditional clauses or expresses obligation , it reflects a speaker's will, judgement, permission, view, order or request. Japanese also has a conditional form, which is similar to the provisional form with a nuanced meaning, but will be covered in the next lesson. Conditional clauses express an 'if' condition and are formed by 一段動詞 with れば and 五段動詞 with えば. The negative form of the provisional 形 can be created by replacing the ない at the end of the ないの形 with なければ.

Affirmative conjugations:

For irregular 動詞:

する・すれば

来る・来れば

For 一段動詞：

出る・出れば

見る・見れば

For 五段動詞：

立つ・立てば

休む・休めば

入る・入れば

Negative Conjugations:

For irregular 動詞:

しない・しなければ

来ない・来なければ

For 一段動詞：

出ない・出なければ

見ない・見なければ

For 五段動詞：

立たない・立たなければ

休まない・休まなければ

入らない・入らなければ

Let's look at some simple examples.

すれば・if you do

見れば・if you look

立たなければ・if you don't stand

These 動詞 conjugations will make more sense later when used in sentences.

Moving on to today's 漢字.

「気・いき・キ・ケ」is a phono-semantic compound of气 air flow and 㐅 a simplified form of rice; meaning spirit, mind, atmosphere, mood, vapour and so on. 気 was simplified from 氣 (qi) which means air, gas, weather and breath. The 气 is a stylised image of airflow and the 㐅 was originally米 rice, representing the steaming tendrils rising from a hot bowl of rice. 気・いき is not used much, 気・キ is an abstract idea relating to spirit, heart, motivation, ambience, mood and so on; and 気・ケ refers to signs, indications and traces (of something).

「山・やま・サン・セン」is an ideogram of a mountain with a high peak and two smaller peaks next to hit; it means mountain, hill, mine and so on. 山・サン is the predominant sound used in modern Japanese 漢字 compounds, but you will find 山・セン in older Chinese derived words.

「土・つち・ド・ト」is a pictogram of a lump of clay on a potter's wheel; meaning earth, soil, dirt, clay, mud and the ground (as opposed to the heavens). 土・つち is used mainly to describe earth, mud, clay or the ground; 土・ド is used for abstract ideas like Saturday (from Saturn 土星 ), earth (element) or place of birth; and 土・ト is used for concrete things like a plot of land, locality and soil.

「天・あまつ・テン」is an ideogram of a stretched out man (大) with his hands up toward to the sky/heaven, represented by the top line (一); meaning heaven, imperial, sky or divine. 天・あまつ means heavenly or imperial whereas 天・テン refers more to sky or the heavens (as a place).

「火・ひ・カ」is a pictogram of a fire (flame in the middle with flamelets on either side); meaning fire, flame, blaze or Tuesday and fire (element). 火・ひ is often used just to refer to fire while 火・カ is used in compounds to do with fire as well as refer to Tuesday.

「雨・あめ・ウ」is a pictogram of a cloud spilling water droplets; means rain, drizzle, shower and is also used for rain related words. 雨・あめ is used to refer to rain alone while 雨・ウ is used for rain related words.

「石・いし・セキ・シャク・コク」is a pictogram of a stone 口 beneath a cliff (distorted厂); meaning stone, gem or jewel. 石・いし is usually used to refer to a small stone; 石・セキ is used to stone like substances (coal, building stones); 石・シャク is used for special stones (stone shrines, magnets); and 石・コク is used for measurements, yields, stipends and so on.

That is all for today, tune in tomorrow for another lesson.