Lesson 22: One way of saying "if" with ば
Verbs have a ば form that turns them into a condition. The conjugation turns the u at the end of a verb into an e, then adds ば. Basically, for five-form verbs, you replace the u with an e, and for one-form verbs, you add れ after the one and only base.
見れば死ぬ If I look I'll die.
殺せばいいかなぁ I suppose it would be fine if I killed him.
ば implies that the condition is sufficient for and implies its result, a logical "if". This can even be used for certain requests, like "If you're late, just call and I'll handle everything".
ば doesn't imply that the condition will happen, so it won't be used in things like "When you come around, come see me". We'll see other conjunctions that're appropriate for that later.