なければいけないMust do, Have to do

Most Recent Replies (16 in total)

• 

  Pushindawood

  must do
  have to do

  Structure

  • Verb[ない] + ければ・いけない

  [long form・usually expresses duty or necessity due to the situation or circumstances]
  [いけない = neutral・ならない = formal/written]

  View on Bunpro

• 

  jalvarezh

  Hi All,

  On my Genki edition they use なくちゃいけません / なくちゃいけない can someone explain to me the difference? are these structures equivalent?

  Cheers!

• 

  mrnoone

  Hey and welcome on the community forums

  Long story short:
  なければいけない (in casual なきゃいけない） and なくてはいけない (in casual なくちゃいけない) are completely interchangeable

  More details:
  There are few ways to say must, have to in Japanesethe major ones are:

  • なければいけない (example: いく→行かなければいけない）
    contraction: なきゃいけない (行かなきゃいけない）
    Sometimes you can see or hear なけりゃ、which is another contraction.

  • なくてはいけない (example: いく→行かなくてはいけない）
    contraction: なくちゃいけない (いくー＞行かなくちゃいけない）
    Sometimes you can see or hear なくっちゃ・なくちゃあ, which are another contractions so don’t be surprised.

  • ないといけない (example: いく→行かないといけない)

  All of those are equivalent, though contractions are more casual t...

• 

  mert

  does anyone know a harder way to say something must be done than the nakerebaikenai? please tell me there are harder ways to say that:neutral_face:

• 

  MegaZeroX

  According to the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, なければいけない is ungrammatical. So is Bunpro wrong here or is the dictionary wrong?

• 

  nekoyama

  The edition of the dictionary that I have only says that いけない doesn’t work with 〜ねば.

• 

  MegaZeroX

  I realize that I misread. I got ねば mixed up with なければ.

• 

  Superpnut

  So…you guys are really telling me there are at least 4 ways to say this exact same thing and they are all spelled almost exactly the same?
  Me and whoever invented japanese gonna need to have a conversation that involves me swinging a bat across it’s face

• 

  TurboSushi1

  What is happening to 書く in this sentence for the grammar なければいけない.

  来週までにカタカナとひらがなを書けるようにしなければいけない。(する)

  Can someone break the 書く conjugation down and explain why it’s used with the に particle.

• 

  IcyIceBear

  It’s a combination of ようにする and なければいけない.
  書けるようにする try to be able to write
  する⇒しない⇒しなければいけない have to
  書けるようにしなければいけない have to try to be able to write (katakana and hiragana by next week)

• 

  TurboSushi1

  Thank you for clearing that up!

• 

  5quirrel

  If it’s an interchangeable expression with なくてはいけない is there a trick to knowing which the review is asking for?

  Or am I missing something?

• 

  Eodis

  I’m not sure i perfectly understand the following example :

  子供が色々なことをやってみるから、ずっと見ていなければいけない。
  Children will try all sorts of things, so you must always keep watch.

  Why is 見る first turned in the ている form here, which of the following grammar point is it ?

• 

  Pablunpro

  Hi!

  It would be the first one, as you must keep watch, so you have to watch and keep on watching (existing in a constant state of ‘doing’ the watching) so that the kids don’t burn down the house.

  HTH!

• 

  stefyglp

  I am also struggling with this. Does anyone know? All I get as a hint is “must do…” in red. If なければいけない and なくてはいけない are “completely interchangeable”, why doesn’t bunpro grade me correct when I stick with one form for my reviews? Honestly getting annoyed.

• 

  Redmusashi13

  I agree with this, whenever I’m reviewing this grammar, its almost entirely random on whether I choose the conjugation Bunpro is looking for. Sometimes it tells me I need to be less polite, so I change it to いけない and then it says a different conjugation so I change it to なくては and then it turns out it actually wanted なくてはならない, and sometimes it will just flat-out mark me wrong.

  I have come to the conclusion that while いけない and ならない do have differences that, should I make a mistake with, I should take the incorrect mark, but if the mistake comes from the なくては・なければ difference, I undo my answer until I fit the “requirement”. Very frustrating at times tbh.

• 

  torpedotaiyaki

  I’m also struggling with the same points Redmusashi and Stefy mentioned, i.e. XXXなければ vs XXXられなくて. I suspect I’m actually struggling with multiple grammar points on these “I must XXX” questions, such as ikenai/naranai. However, I don’t want to hazard veering off into disparate conflated grammar points. To to stay on topic, is there a difference between られなくては／なければ? e.g. Using the problem question “冬になったら、暖房を_______。”, I default to two answers, usually:

  ・ つけられなくてはなりません
  ・ つけなければいけません

  Right now I went with the former in what is little more than just a crapshoot guess. It was wrong. I’m sure later I’ll try something else for equally tenuous reasoning. Correct answer was つけなければいけません.

  It’s rather frustrating as I’m not sure if this is simply a manifestation of a personal failure (either reading comprehension, cognitive capabilities, or whatever), or an information gap in grammar covered thus far. Or – perhaps – if this is simply...