sigoto ga owattara, sugu ni ie ni kaerimasu.

When work finishes, I go home immediately.

Breakdown of sigoto ga owattara, sugu ni ie ni kaerimasu.

• に: destination particle
• が: subject particle
• 家いえ: home
• 仕事しごと: work
• 〜たら: conditional form
• 終おわる: to finish
• 帰かえる: to return
• すぐ に: quickly

Questions & Answers about sigoto ga owattara, sugu ni ie ni kaerimasu.

What does the particle が do after 仕事? Why not を?

が marks 仕事 as the subject of the verb 終わったら (from 終わる, "to finish/end").

• 仕事が終わったら literally: "When work has finished"
  → Work is the thing that ends, so it’s the subject, marked by が.

Using を would be wrong here because 終わる in this sentence is intransitive (something ends by itself), not transitive (someone ends something). Compare:

• 仕事が終わる – Work finishes / Work comes to an end.
• 仕事を終える – (I) finish the work. (終える is transitive, so it can take を.)

So 仕事が終わったら is correctly using が for the subject of an intransitive verb.

What exactly is 終わったら? Why does it look like past tense plus ら?

終わったら is the たら-form (conditional) of 終わる.

Formation:

• Dictionary form: 終わる
• Plain past: 終わった
• Add ら: 終わったら

Function:

• The たら-form often means "when/after (something has happened)" or "if/when (something happens)".
• Here, 仕事が終わったら means "when work is finished" or "after work is finished".

So it’s not "past tense + random ら" — it’s a standard conditional pattern:
Verb (た-form) + ら → "when/after/if V".

Why is 終わった (past form) used, when this sentence is about the future?

In Japanese たら clauses, the verb is usually in the past (た-form) even when talking about the future. The logic is:

• The action in the たら-clause is considered completed before the main action happens.
• So you mark it as "having finished", even if that completion is in the future.

Here:

• 仕事が終わったら = "When work has finished"
• Then: すぐに家に帰ります = "(I) will go home immediately."

Time flow:

1. Work finishes (completed event → marked with 終わった).
2. Then you go home.

So the た-form in 終わったら marks completion relative to the next action, not necessarily past time relative to now.

What is the difference between 終わったら, 終わると, and 終わった時?

All can be translated as "when/after work finishes," but they have different nuances:

1. 仕事が終わったら、すぐに家に帰ります。

   • Focus: "When/after work has finished, (then) I will..."
   • Often implies a natural next action, can feel a bit more speaker’s intention / plan.

2. 仕事が終わると、すぐに家に帰ります。

   • More like: "As soon as work finishes, I (always) go straight home."
   • Often used for habitual, regular sequences: A happens → B always follows.
   • Feels a bit more mechanical/cause-and-effect, less about personal decision in the moment.

3. 仕事が終わった時、すぐに家に帰ります。

   • Literally: "At the time when work has finished, I will go straight home."
   • Emphasizes the time point rather than the sequence as strongly.
   • Depending on context, can sound a bit more like you’re just locating something in time.

For a natural "When work finishes, I’ll go straight home," 終わったら is the most typical and neutral choice.

What does すぐ mean exactly, and what nuance does に add in すぐに?

• すぐ by itself means:
  • "immediately", "right away", or
  • "very near" (in space or time), depending on context.

In this sentence, it means "immediately / right away".

• に here is a particle that often turns words into adverbial modifiers of the verb.
  • すぐ → すぐに (adverb form) → "immediately / right away"

In practice:

• すぐ家に帰ります。
• すぐに家に帰ります。

Both are natural. すぐに can feel just a little more neutral / standard, while plain すぐ can sound a bit more casual or slightly stronger/emphatic depending on intonation. But the difference is small; both are common.

Can I drop に and just say すぐ家に帰ります? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can say すぐ家に帰ります. It’s perfectly natural.

Nuance:

• すぐに家に帰ります – slightly more neutral/polished.
• すぐ家に帰ります – often feels a bit more casual or slightly more emphatic in speech.

In many everyday contexts, they’re interchangeable. For a textbook-style neutral sentence, すぐに is often used, but native speakers frequently omit に in conversation.

What does 家に mean here, and how is に different from へ or no particle?

In 家に帰ります:

• 家 (いえ) = home / house
• に = particle marking the destination / goal of movement
• 帰ります = (I) go back / return

So 家に帰ります = "I return home" / "I go back home."

About particles:

• 家に帰ります。
  Very standard: "go back to home."

• 家へ帰ります。
  へ also marks direction/destination: "go towards home."
  In modern usage, with 帰る, both に and へ are common and practically interchangeable, though に is a bit more common in many contexts.

• Dropping the particle (e.g., 家帰ります) is possible in very casual speech, but it’s not something to copy early on. Stick with 家に帰ります for correct standard Japanese.

Why is 帰ります in the polite non-past form? Does it mean present or future?

帰ります is the polite non-past form of 帰る.

In Japanese, the non-past form covers both:

• Present (habitual, general truths), and
• Future (plans, predictions).

In this sentence:

• 仕事が終わったら、すぐに家に帰ります。

It most naturally means a future action:

• "When work is finished, I will go straight home."

It could also describe a habitual routine depending on context:

• "When work finishes, I (always) go straight home."

Which reading (future vs habitual) is intended depends on context, not verb form alone.

Why is the subject ("I") missing? How would I say “we” or “my wife and I” instead?

In Japanese, the subject is often omitted when it’s clear from context. Here, the speaker is obviously talking about their own plans, so "I" is simply left out.

If you want to specify a subject, you can add it before the sentence:

• 私は、仕事が終わったら、すぐに家に帰ります。
  "As for me, when work is finished, I go straight home."

To say "we":

• 私たちは、仕事が終わったら、すぐに家に帰ります。
  "As for us, when work is finished, we go straight home."

To say "my wife and I":

• 妻と私は、仕事が終わったら、すぐに家に帰ります。
  "My wife and I, when work is finished, (we) go straight home."

In spoken Japanese, people still often drop the subject unless they need to clarify who is included.

Can I change the word order of すぐに and 家に? For example: 仕事が終わったら、家にすぐ帰ります。

Yes, you can move すぐに around somewhat freely:

1. 仕事が終わったら、すぐに家に帰ります。
2. 仕事が終わったら、すぐ家に帰ります。
3. 仕事が終わったら、家にすぐ帰ります。

All are grammatically acceptable.

Nuance:

• (1) and (2) are the most natural and common:
  They clearly modify 帰ります ("immediately go home").
• (3) 家にすぐ帰ります is also understandable and not wrong, but it can sound a bit less typical. It may put a tiny bit more emphasis on 家に as the destination that you immediately go back to.

For learners, (1) or (2) is the safest, most natural-sounding word order.

How would this sentence look in more casual speech?

The main change is dropping です / ます politeness:

• Polite:
  仕事が終わったら、すぐに家に帰ります。
• Casual:
  仕事が終わったら、すぐに家に帰る。

In casual speech, people might also:

• Drop に after すぐ:
  仕事が終わったら、すぐ家に帰る。
• Soften the phrase further in conversation with contractions or fillers, but the core grammar remains the same.

Is the comma (、) after 終わったら necessary?

The comma is not grammatically required, but it is very common and recommended:

• 仕事が終わったら、すぐに家に帰ります。 ← more natural, easier to read
• 仕事が終わったらすぐに家に帰ります。 ← also correct

The comma simply helps visually separate the conditional clause (仕事が終わったら) from the main clause (すぐに家に帰ります), especially in written Japanese.