Using "Nara" with Different Verbs


I recently learned that if you are asked if you've, say, been to Japan, you
can use "nara" and reply with "I've been to China, but I have not been to
Japan" to sort of lesson the blow of your reply. What if you were sick and
someone asked you if you took medicine, how would you use a "nara"-like word
to say something like, "I slept early, but I did not take medicine." I used
being sick since it's just a more convenient situation, but it can be
anything. How would you say I have done this, but I have not done what you
asked if I have done in the style of a "nara" sentence?




Unless you are already pretty fluent, my true recommendation would be to _not_
use 「なら」 in saying "I slept early, but I did not take medicine." If a
Japanese-speaker (me) had to think for a few seconds about how to say
something, it would usually not be the most natural-sounding sentence.

「なら」 works better with two nouns with only one verb (as your China-Japan
sentence) than with two different verb phrases.

If you absolutely had to use 「なら」for some reason, you could say:

> 「[早]{はや}めに[寝]{ね}る **だけなら** してるけど、[薬]{くすり} **は** [飲]{のん}んでいない。」 or
>
> 「早めに寝る **だけなら** してるけど、薬 **までは** 飲んでいない。」

It is the contrastive 「は」 in the last half; Do not use 「を」 if you want to
sound natural.

Finally, if you did not have to use 「なら」, you could say it much simpler as:

> 「早めに **は** 寝たけど、薬まで **は** 飲んでいない。」

That is how I recommend you phrase it using a nice pair of contrastive 「は's」.

