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㊦ ばかり ←

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㊦ ばよかった

Phrase


A phrase which expresses the speaker's regret. I wish~ had done something
【Related Expression: てよかった】

Key Sentences

(ks). 先生に聞けばよかった・ばよかったです。

I wish I had asked my teacher.


Formation

(i)Group 1 verbs Vconditionalばよかった  
話せばよかった I wish someone had talked
(ii)Group 2 verbs Vstemればよかった  
食べればよかった I wish someone had eaten
(iii)Irregular verbs 来る→来ればよかった I wish someone had come
する→すればよかった I wish someone had done

Examples

(a). あの本を読めばよかった

I wish I had read that book.

(b). ウェルズさんは日本へ行けばよかったね。

I wish Mr. Wells had gone to Japan, don't you?

(c). ああ、もっと英語を勉強しておけばよかったなあ。

Oh, I wish I had studied English harder!


Notes

1. Verb conditionalばよかった is an idiomatic expression which means 'I wish ~ had done something.' It consists of a conditional clause with and よかった 'was good' and literally means 'It would have been good if ~ had done something.'

2. When there is no subject in a cause sentence, the first person is the implicit subject.

3. This expression is often used with exclamatory words such as ああ 'oh' and the sentence-final particle of exclamation なあ, as in Example (c).

4. "Someone (other than the first person) wishes ~ had done something" is expressed using this phrase and the verb 思う 'think', as in (1).

(⇨ いる2, Note 4; と3)

【Related Expression】

In "Verb conditionalばよかった", Verb conditionalば expresses a counterfactual action or state in the past. In a similar expression "Verbてよかった", Verbて expresses a factual action or state in the past. Compare [1] with Example (a).

[1]


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