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Question about なら

KyonNeko

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11 Dec 2015
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Hey,
I just learned about conditionals and I wanted to ask if you can use なら without the condition part.
for example:

Ben: I'll eat an apple
Dan: if you eat an apple, i'll eat a cake.

Can I write it like this:
ベン:僕はリンゴを食べる。
ダン:なら、僕はケーキを食べる。 (without writing the "if you eat an apple" condition)
 
But you could say,
ベン:僕はリンゴを食べる。
ダン:そうなら、僕はケーキを食べる。
which means "If so, I'll eat cake."
 
It should be それなら. もしそうなら can be used when the condition is hypothetical.
e.g.
ジョージ:それじゃ、いまは誰がそれを持ってると思う?
ロン:僕たちの側にあればいいけど
フレッド:もしそうなら、たぶんダンブルドアが持ってるな
ロン:どこに?ホグワーツか?
ジョージ:きっとそうだ。『賢者の石』を隠したところだし

The etymologies of the conditional なら and the conjunction なら are the same (the -ba conditional of an auxiliary verb for assertion なり), though.
 
「なら、」 can be replaced to 「それなら、」. Both meanings are correct, but 「それなら (Sorenara)」is more clear.
 
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