Home
Back

Dear visitor, if you know the answer to this question, please post it. Thank you!

Note that this thread has not been updated in a long time, and its content might not be up-to-date anymore.

Expressing (have to) - confused 2016/10/3 20:38
Can someone maybe help me with this?

My Japanese is coming along nicely but the concept or expressing that you HAVE to do something I still hate with a passion.

I have two questions.

1. There seems to be a thousand ways to say you have to do something.

食べなきゃいけない
食べなければいけないんです
食べなければならないんです
食べなきゃ
食べないと

Please correct my mistakes.

Are these all the same? What do you say?

2. How do you form the past tense of each of these sentences and which is the most common to conjigate?

Thank you very much
by dcd  

Re: Expressing (have to) - confused 2016/10/5 10:53
1. What you have there all mean "I/you must eat."
食べなきゃ is a shortened, colloquial version of 食べなきゃ いけない, which is a further colloquial version of 食べなければ いけない, which is the informal speech. Now the formal speech is 食べなければ いけません or 食べなければ いけない(ん)です。


What you see in (beginner's) textbooks are:
Polite speech:
食べなければ いけないです。
食べなければ いけません。
or
食べないと いけないです。
食べないと いけません。
Casual/informal speech:

食べなければ いけない。
食べないと いけない。

The 食べなければ part can be 食べなきゃ in colloquial speech.

2. You want to say "I had to eat" then?
For each of the 5 sentence/phrases you have, the past would be:
食べなきゃいけなかった。
食べなければいけなかったんです。
食べなければならなかったんです。
The last two cannot have a form for past, because those are abbreviated short.
by AK rate this post as useful

Re: Expressing (have to) - confused 2016/10/5 20:39
A1. All are different. Situation and tones could affect much.

食べないと
Caring others, implying "You have to eat something, otherwise you couldn't get well."

食べなきゃ
Encouraging myself, "I don't have an apatite, but I should have something to get back to work." Or, encouraging others,...

食べなければいけないんです
I say "I have to eat something." with a strong will.

食べなければならないんです
Someone else says "You have to eat something." Or, the situation forces me to eat something.

食べなきゃいけない
Rare use? I couldn't imagine the situation. An artificial grammatical example?

A2. Basically, there is no past tense in Japanese. For my point of view, you need much more inputs, before thinking of grammatical explanations, or English itself. Japanese make (past) meanings by sentences, not a sentence alone.
by Luisjp rate this post as useful

Re: Expressing (have to) - confused 2016/10/5 21:56
なければならない and なければいけない
なければならない is a typical written word of "should or have to".
なければいけない is a variation of the above word. more casual and colloquial. thus, the meaning of なければいけない is weaker than なければならない.
んです is used for emphasis. show a speaker's strong will.
食べなきゃ is an abbreviated of 食べなければ
食べなきゃ and 食べないと : the next word(s) are omitted. you can speculate (or supplement) any words.
食べなきゃ死ぬよ。食べなきゃ腹が減るよ。食べなきゃ体力が持たないよ。 etc.
by ken (guest) rate this post as useful

reply to this thread