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Please help me to understand this Japanese sentence 私は彼に謝らない謝らない。 Please help me to understand this Japanese sentence 私は彼に謝らない謝らない。 The translation I was given was I should apologise to him. However I really dont understand how it means that, 謝らない, does this not mean not apologising and といけません means have to? So I see I dont have to apologise :S Please can you break 謝らないといけません down into its separate words etc anything to help me understand how this works, the site said it is a basic sentence, but all I am is confused, seems very non-basic to me.
Dec 29, 2010 10:13 PM
Answers · 5
2
I think you meant: 私は彼に謝らないといけません。 いけません is the negative polite verb form of いける, which means something "will do" or "is OK" or "will work". "I think that will work." =  いけるかもしれません。 いけない・いけません = "won't do", "you must not do", etc. So, 「私は彼に謝らないといけません。」 literally means, "If I don't apologizes to him, that won't do". Of course, nothing makes sense translated literally, and it actually means, "I need to apologize to him." A number of similar grammar structures exist in Japanese that consist of a verb in the negative form followed by the connector と, or the conditional negative verb form ~なければ, or the negative verb form nなくて followed by は, and finally a negative phrase. ???ないとだめ ???ないといけません ???なければ、なりません ???なくてはいけません 謝らないとだめ 謝らないといけません 謝らなければなりません 謝らなくてはいけません I've always thought that it was interesting that a double negative becomes a "must do" in Japanese; saying "not doing X would be bad" is a common way of saying "I (or you) have to/should/must/need to do X". 謝る必要がある is the more literal translation from English (I need to apologize). This isn't grammatically incorrect, but I don't hear it used as often, and it has a slightly different nuance than the other phrases above.
December 30, 2010
1
謝らない=don't apologize 謝らないといけない=have to apologize in this case "謝らなくてはいけない。”  omission "謝らないといけない” 謝ら なくては いけない  謝ら ない と いけない
December 30, 2010
Finds it highly amusing that every single one of her Japanese questions gets a thumbs down...no prizes for guessing by who..to that person, seriously get a life already!!!
December 30, 2010
I asked some friends of mine and they tell me its mean “I will not apology to you”
December 30, 2010
Aggghhh sorry that will teach me not to copy and paste too much..the sentence is 私は彼に謝らない謝らない。
December 29, 2010
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