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The sentence in question: しばらく行くと、道路が急カーブになる所で、がけの下に川が見えてきた。

For full context: https://www.satorireader.com/articles/sanzu-no-kawa-episode-1-edition-m?sentenceID=SrOvSLFfSOyCJFzmEmFt

My attempt at translation: "When I drive a little while, in a place where the road becomes a steep curve, the river beneath the cliffs comes into sight."

In my textbook, I learnt that when と is used in a conditional phrase, what follows after is an "inevitable consequence/something that MUST happen after the condition in the phrase has been met". This does indeed somehow fit the context, because when I continue driving along the road, I will inevitably encounter all the places this road leads to. However, I still find that using a conditional phrase at all sounds odd here.

しばらく confers a temporal semantics, and it also implies that what is described afterwards also happens afterwards. So I'd rather expect something along the lines of "て-form + から" or at least a "時" to fit into the temporal context. Why is と used instead?

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Narktor
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    You have been calling every aspect of our language "odd", "weird", "not making sense", etc. –  Nov 25 '17 at 16:55
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    I said that with the knowledge I have so far, X doesn't make sense. This way I try to make it clear that I have a certain understanding of the constructions in question, but this understanding suggests a logic which doesn't make sense to me. I never called any aspect of "your" language weird, odd etc.. It was never meant in a "personal" way, but only in a descriptive way. – Narktor Nov 25 '17 at 17:10
  • As you wrote, it's "when と is used in a conditional phrase" that the main clause is an inevitable consequence. However, the example sentence is a temporal clause, not conditional because the main clause is a realized action. – user4092 Nov 25 '17 at 20:23
  • @Narktor: According to this forum's rule, I'm not allowed to answer your question. Is your question solved by reading the previous question? I don't think so, because if you understand by reading it, you didn't ask it. haha –  Nov 26 '17 at 12:04
  • Oops. I just found that I can write here! It is possible to write in "te-from" or "時”, but "と" also works perfectly fine here. It depends on the writer's preference, but I believe that many native speakers would choose と here, because it's more concise and to the point to native speaker's ears. –  Nov 26 '17 at 12:10

  • In my textbook, I learnt that when と is used in a conditional phrase, what follows after is an "inevitable consequence/something that MUST happen after the condition in the phrase has been met". ........What your textbook said had the intention to explain the difference between "と” from "なら." So the explanation is quite confusing. So I will explain it in a different way here. In this context, you can think that と means "and." 　「しばらく行った。すると、」＝「しばらく行くと、」. Hope this helps! If you still do not understand, just let me know.

     –  Nov 26 '17 at 12:16

  • This is probably a duplicate, but it really helps me understand things better if I'm posing the question myself. If this infringes any rules, though, I'll happily remove it..........................I just read a question which seems apparently a "duplicated" question. But Japanese members welcomed and answered as many as 4 answers. From this phenomenon, I learned that Japanese members like to read a question that is written with "modesty" and "humbleness" probably because it is based on the Japanese culture. Hope this helps! Use that technique even when you don't have such a way of thinking.

     –  Nov 26 '17 at 12:38

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