じゃ -- Can someone break down this sentence?

Japanese
#1

「問題が起きてからじゃ、遅いのよ。」

Context: It’s a conversation in a drama where a woman is trying to convince a single father to stop ignoring his health condition and to make preparations for his daughter’s future.

I know the gist of the sentence is “if you wait until a problem happens, then it’s too late” (more literally, “after a problem happens, it’s late のよ!”), but I’m really having trouble with the じゃ in the middle. Is it a contraction of a longer phrase, or is it taking the place of something?
What grammar point does this fall under?

#2

It’s listed in n3 lesson 3 as a casual form of では

#3

Right, じゃ is the contraction of では, and it’s used in many grammar points –

N/Adj + じゃなかった ・ ではなかった
Phrase + じゃないか・ではないか
それでは / では + Phrase
それじゃあ / それじゃ / じゃあ / じゃ + Phrase
https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/50
https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/173
https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/450

– but this sentence doesn’t follow those structures.
・There isn’t a phrase after this じゃ.
・ It doesn’t make sense to insert “well then” in the middle of this sentence.
・Also, when spoken, じゃ + Phrase, typically has a pause afterwards similar to “Well, in that case…”, where there’s a change in tone of the conversation, but this was spoken without a thinking pause. (More matter-of-fact like, “If there’s a problem then it’s too late”)
・Wouldn’t a conditional make more sense here? （問題が起きれば遅いのよ）

It seems there’s something else going on here. :thinking:
(Sorry, I’ve puzzled over this one a lot.)

2 Likes
#4

This might help http://selftaughtjapanese.com/2015/02/26/japanese-particle-combination-では-de-wa-and-じゃ-ja/

Also https://jisho.org/search/では%20%23sentences after the first two example sentences you can see では being used without ない etc following it.

1 Like
#5

…てからじゃ遅い
… before it’s too late

Break it down into the following

問題が起きてから from when the problem happens, (notice it is present/future tense)
じゃ (it’s) already (same as もう)
遅いよ！ late!

2 Likes
#6

I think you’re missing this grammar point: https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/562

It’s basically another “if,” but what follows it is (I think pretty much always - at least in this usage) something undesirable. That’s where the phrase しなくては｛ならない・いけない・だめだ・etc…} comes from.

So this is saying something like “if it’s after a problem occurred, it’s late” or more naturally, “If you wait until something goes wrong, it’s already too late.”

2 Likes
#7

Ah… I think you got it! This grammar point fits the structure and the feeling of the sentence.

https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/562
ては
if・with
since・because

So in this case, から is treated as a noun and 遅い is the undesirable outcome.
This also explains why I couldn’t find it by searching for じゃ or では.
Also the level (N2 L8) explains why I hadn’t come across it before (yet).

4 Likes