What is the specific difference between ば and たら conditionals?


This might be a common question but I really don't understand. I have searched
a lot of websites but... I end up here. The facts that I know (can be wrong) :

  * ば focuses on the condition and cannot be used with instruction, permission, and command. 

  * たら focuses on the result, can be used freely, and implies a completed action. It can also be used for unexpected situation and can mean when. 

The one that make me confused is the focusing differences of the condition(ば)
and the result(たら). How to know if a conditional phrase focuses on the
condition or the result?

In these sentences, should it better be ば or たら?

A:レストランに行かない? B:時間があれば行くよ. For this I choose ば because it is the decider.

A:頑張って! B:私の勝ちだったら付き合ってください! For this I choose たら because the result is
introduced and prioritized.

To be honest I just used my feeling to explain the reason because I can not
use the words. Giving links to a website will not help. But again answers will
be fully appreciated.




For たら you can find a pretty good starting point [here](http://www.learn-
japanese-adventure.com/japanese-conditional-form-tara.html) and
[here](http://www.learn-japanese-adventure.com/tara-sentence-special-
case.html). The same page offers some good info for ば [here](http://www.learn-
japanese-adventure.com/japanese-conditional-form-ba-nara.html). You may also
want to save that page for future references as it offers good lessons on a
wide variety of grammar topics. Hope it helps mate.

