va'o is the modal of vanbi, and describes the environment in which an event takes place. This means it could sometimes translate English where... or while... However, some people have extended this sense in order to use it as a modal for "if", even though bai and ja'e do a better job of that.
va'o was once very commonly used by people who opposed ganai, gi. I haven't seen it much anymore.
Many of the arguments for va'o show up under ganai, gi. Actually, they're probably better considered as arguments against ganai, gi. This argument against va'o was in the va'o section of the huge if page:
- The problem (in my opinion) with va'o is that we need a quick and easy way to say "I had fun at the performance." mi se zdile va'o le se tigni is the most obvious way to do it, but then vanbi1 must occur in this world. Therefore, I support use va'o for this and bai for if. — Adam
- One could use li'i for this, e.g. leli'i se tigni cu zdile mi...
- mi se zdile le nu mi pu zvati le se tigni
- That's using a trick of the place structure of zdile. How would you translate "I argued at the meeting."? (other than mi darlu va'o le nu penmi)
- mi pu darlu co gridikni. Generally, broda brode or broda me le sumti can be used to convey this information.
- There's always another way to say something. When someone suggests a certain usage, they are most likely not implying that there is some concept which would be absolutely impossible to express without it. However, it might be more convenient, or more clear. --rab.spir
- In some cases, if in English refers to something like "environment". For example:
- Have some coffee if you want.
- .einai .e'a ko pinxe lo ckafi
- .e'u do pinxe lo'e ckafi va'o le nu do djica co no'a
- This doesn't seem like an example of an environment, but a motivation: mu'ida'i
- Have some coffee if you want.