Provided That (Best Overview: Definition And Concrete Examples)

What does provided that mean?

How do you use provided that in legal writing and contracts?

What’s the difference with providing that?

We define “provided that”, look at how it is used in contracts and legal writing, the different meanings it could have, compare it to the phrase “providing that” and look at concrete examples to better understand it.

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What does “provided that” mean

Provided that meaning

Provided that is a phrase commonly used in law appearing in statutes, regulations, contracts, policy documents, protocols, legal writings and official documents.

Depending on how it is employed, it can have different meanings such as:

1. On the condition that 
2. With the exception that
3. If 
4. Only if
5. As long as 

Provided that definition

The phrase provided that is typically used in plain English to introduce a condition, a limitation or an exception.

In legal writing, it will also be used to qualify something, a contractual provision or legal obligation.

For example:

This can be rewritten as:

In this example, the phrase provided that conveys an essential condition (deposit) required before an event (contract signing).

Here, provided that is used to state the validity conditions of the license grant (qualification).

Provided that can be used in a sentence or contractual clause as follows:

1. Verb + conjunction
2. An alternative way of saying “if” or “on the condition that” 
3. Refer to an event that must happen in the future
4. An exception
5. A qualification

Let’s look at a few examples to illustrate this.

Verb + conjunction 

Here is an example of the use of the phrase as a verb + conjunction:

Condition 

Let’s look at an example where we use provided that to impose a condition:

Future event 

Now, let’s look at an example where we use provided that to refer to a future event.

You can have “provided that” used to mean “with the exception that”.

Exception

Qualification 

You can use provided that to further qualify a statement or an obligation in a contract.

For example:

In plain English, we use the phrase provided that in most cases to refer to a condition, limitation or an exception.

For example:

Provided that in law is commonly used to refer to a condition, establish an exception or qualify something.

Statutes, regulations and contracts have legal provisions making use of the ‘provided that’ phrase.

Let’s look at some examples:

The phrases “provided that” and “providing that” mean the same thing and can be used interchangeably.

It is perfectly ok to use “providing that” instead of “provided that” although some critics do not agree.

The more common way though of writing the concept as provided that.

At the end of the day, you are well justified in using the alternative providing that if it makes sense to you.

Let’s look at an example of how providing that can be used:

Let’s look at how provided that and providing that is used in legal writing today.

What is the meaning of provided that?

Provided that can have many meanings depending on how it is used in a sentence or in legal writing.

Here are some possible meanings:

1. On the condition that 
2. With the exception that
3. If 
4. Only if
5. As long as 

How do you use providing that?

The most common use of provided that is to express a condition.

For example:

You can also remove the “that” to express the same thing.

For example:

Is it providing that or provided that?

Both formulations are valid.

You can write “providing that” or “provided that” and the meaning conveyed is the same.

For example:

Alternatively, you can write this statement as follows:

Related Articles

If you’re interested to learn more about legal jargon and contract drafting content, be sure to check out our articles on how to use “no later than”, the meaning of “sine qua non” or “including but not limited to“!