ばよかった

Phrase (Basic ㊦ 87)

A phrase which expresses the speaker’s regret.

Equivalent: I wish ~ had done something

先生に聞けばよかった・ばよかったです。: I wish I had asked my teacher.
あの本を読めばよかった。: I wish I had read that book.
ウェルズさんは日本へ行けばよかったね。: I wish Mr. Wells had gone to Japan, don't you?
ああ、もっと英語を勉強しておけばよかったなあ。: Oh, I wish I had studied English harder!

Formation

(i) Group 1 verbs	Vconditionalばよかった
	話せばよかった	I wish someone had talked
(ii) Group 2 verbs	Vstemればよかった
	食べればよかった	I wish someone had eaten
(iii) Irregular verbs	来る→来ればよかった	I wish someone had come
	する→すればよかった	I wish someone had done

Notes

1. Verb conditionalばよかった is an idiomatic expression which means 'I wish ~ had done something.' It consists of a conditional clause with ば and よかった 'was good' and literally means 'It would have been good if ~ had done something.'

2. When there is no subject in a ば cause sentence, the first person is the implicit subject.

3. This expression is often used with exclamatory words such as ああ 'oh' and the sentence-final particle of exclamation なあ, as in Example (c).

4. "Someone (other than the first person) wishes ~ had done something" is expressed using this phrase and the verb 思う 'think', as in (1).

(⇨ いる2, Note 4; と3)

ビルは日本へ行けばよかったと思っている。
Literally: Bill thinks that it would have been good if he had gone to Japan. (= Bill wishes he had gone to Japan.)

【Related Expression】

In "Verb conditionalばよかった", Verb conditionalば expresses a counterfactual action or state in the past. In a similar expression "Verbてよかった", Verbて expresses a factual action or state in the past. Compare [1] with Example (a).

[1]

あの本を読んでよかった。
Literally: It was good that I read that book. (= I'm glad I read that book.)