komatta toki ha, hitori de kangaenaide tomodati ni tayotte ii.

困ったとき uses the past form 困った before とき to mean when you are in trouble / when a problem has already come up.

In Japanese, the tense before とき often shows whether the situation is already true at that time.

• 困ったとき = when you’re already troubled
• 困るとき = when you get troubled / when trouble happens

For this kind of advice sentence, 困ったとき sounds more natural.

The は marks 困ったとき as the topic or condition for the rest of the sentence.

So the feeling is something like:

• As for when you’re in trouble, ...
• When that happens, ...

Without は, 困ったとき would still be grammatical, but は adds a slight sense of framing or contrast: in that situation, here’s what to do.

Here, で shows the manner or condition in which the action is done.

So:

• 一人で考える = to think by yourself / to think alone

The で is not marking a place here. It is marking how the thinking is being done.

考えないで is the negative て-form of 考える.

It can mean:

• don’t think ... and then ...
• without thinking ...
• instead of thinking ...

In this sentence, it works very naturally as:

• don’t keep thinking about it by yourself; rely on your friends instead

So it is connected to the next action, not just a standalone command.

Not especially. It is much softer than a blunt imperative like 考えるな.

Because it is followed by advice about what to do instead, it sounds more supportive than forceful. The nuance is closer to:

• Don’t try to handle it all alone
• Try not to think it through by yourself

rather than a harsh Don’t think!

Because 頼る normally uses に for the person or thing you rely on.

The standard pattern is:

• 人に頼る = rely on a person
• 友達に頼る = rely on friends

So 友達に頼って is the natural form here.

頼る means more than just ask once for help. It has the nuance of:

• relying on
• leaning on
• depending on
• turning to someone for support

In this sentence, it sounds warm and supportive. It suggests that it is okay to let your friends help you, support you, or share the burden.

The full standard pattern for permission is てもいい:

• 頼ってもいい = it’s okay to rely on them

However, in casual speech and writing, the も is often omitted:

• 頼っていい

That shorter version is very common and still means it’s okay to rely on .... The version with も sounds a little more explicit or textbook-like.

It is omitted, which is very normal in Japanese.

The sentence is understood as advice aimed at:

• you
• or people in general

Japanese often leaves out subjects when they are obvious from context. English usually needs to say you, but Japanese does not.

Yes. This is a very common Japanese structure.

• 困った modifies とき
• literally: the time when you are troubled

Japanese puts modifiers before the noun, so a whole verb phrase can come before とき, 人, もの, and so on.

No. The spaces are there to help learners read the sentence.

A normal written version would usually be:

困ったときは、一人で考えないで友達に頼っていい。

Japanese normally does not put spaces between words the way English does.