ばあいは - Grammar Discussion

in the event of
in the case of

Structure

  • Verb + 場合・(は)
  • い-Adjective + 場合・(は)
  • Noun + の・場合・(は)
  • な-Adjective + な・場合・(は)

[can indicate a hypothetical event or describe a characteristic of someone/something (“as for…”)]

View on Bunpro

I’m a bit confused about when to add “は” afterward. The first two readings use it pretty consistently in each case, and in the Bunpro examples, only answers including “は” are considered correct. However, the Japanese Stack Exchange reading pretty clearly states that it is optional only, usually if you want to emphasize the first part / conditional phrase.

Any thoughts?

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Hey and sorry for the late answer! :bowing_man:

Basically you can skip it in every example and meaning won’t change. Though I personally would say that it would be good to write comma at least to avoid possible confusion.

So:

危険な場合はここに電話をしてください。better not omit は, since it can cause confusion.

危険な場合(は)、ここに電話をしてください。safe to omit は

Cheers,

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OK thanks!

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I got this response:
ಠ_ಠ
and frankly I deserved it.

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I think you add a note that it’s sometimes pronounced ばわい. Not sure if it’s a dialect thing but I’ve run into it several times on grammar YouTube channels.

@Johnathan-Weir Hey! While you may have come across it, ばわい or ばやい are not valid readings for 場合 and should be avoided. Just like 知り合い, 組合, 試合, etc. 合 is always read “あい.” Source. Cheers!

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@Pushindawood That’s what I figured since the reading wasn’t listed in the dictionary (except under a different entry) but since it was a native speaker using it I thought I’d bring it up.

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The 日本国語大辞典 app actually acknowledges ばやい:

ば‐あい‥あひ【場合】
〘名〙 (「ばやい」とも)

I only looked it up now, I used to think it’s just a-a sometimes sounding a little bit like one of the others but not really quite enough to spell it out…

(Usually if this is the only dictionary that lists something, it means we shouldn’t do it. :smile:)

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:joy: Yeeee, should be paying better attention.

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I got the same response and had no idea what it meant. Even after reading this thread… it took me a while (and a incorrect answer) to figure it out. Haha

Hello,

I am wondering what is the difference between using ばあいは and には to say “as for…”.

わたしの犬いぬのばあいはかぞくといっしょです
and
わたしの犬いぬにはかぞくといっしょです

Look like they have the same meaning to me.
What do you think?