A2
如果…就… — if, then
How conditionals work in Chinese, why 就 marks the second half, and why there is no special verb form for hypotheticals.
如果 opens the condition and 就 marks what follows from it. As with 因为…所以, Chinese keeps both halves where English keeps one.
如果下雨，我就不去了。
Rúguǒ xià yǔ, wǒ jiù bú qù le.
If it rains, I won’t go.
如果你有时间，就来吧。
Rúguǒ nǐ yǒu shíjiān, jiù lái ba.
Come along if you’ve got time.
就 sits before the verb in the second half, after the subject — 我就不去, not 就我不去. It is the same 就 as in 就 and 才, doing the same then, straight away work.
No special form for hypotheticals
English changes the verb for degrees of unreality — if it rains, if it rained, if it had rained. Chinese changes nothing. The verbs are identical in all three; context and time words carry the difference.
如果我有钱，我就买一辆车。
Rúguǒ wǒ yǒu qián, wǒ jiù mǎi yí liàng chē.
If I had money, I’d buy a car.
That sentence is equally if I have money, I’ll buy a car. Which one is meant depends entirely on what you both already know about whether you have money — and in practice this is almost never ambiguous in conversation.
的话 at the end instead
Extremely common in speech, and it can replace 如果 entirely or wrap around it.
下雨的话，我就不去了。
Xià yǔ dehuà, wǒ jiù bú qù le.
If it rains, I won’t go.
如果…的话 with both is also normal and not redundant to a native ear.
要是 in speech
要是 is the colloquial 如果 — same structure, lighter register, and far more common in conversation than 如果, which reads as slightly more written.
要是你不喜欢，可以换。
Yàoshi nǐ bù xǐhuan, kěyǐ huàn.
If you don’t like it, you can change it.
只要 and 只有
Two useful narrower versions, and they pair with different second halves:
- 只要…就… — as long as A, B. A low bar.
- 只有…才… — only if A, B. A high one.
只要你想，就可以做到。
Zhǐyào nǐ xiǎng, jiù kěyǐ zuòdào.
You can do it as long as you want to.
只有努力才能成功。
Zhǐyǒu nǔlì cái néng chénggōng.
Only hard work brings success.
就 makes it sound easy and 才 makes it sound like a requirement, which is exactly the difference between those two words everywhere else.