～なければならない

RuleVerb nai-form → nakereba naranai: must / have to.

Curiosity

How do you say "I must do X" — obligation — in Japanese? There is no single word like English "must".

Intuition

Literally it is "if you do not do it (nakereba), it will not do (naranai)" — a double negative that lands on "have to". "Not doing is not allowed."

Visualization

iku → ikanai → ikanakereba → ikanakereba naranai. It passes through a negative condition to become obligation.

行くdictionary form

Essence

It is built on the conditional of the nai-form (nakereba = "if not") + naranai ("won't do"). Casual: nakya. Synonyms: nai to ikenai, nakute wa naranai.

Examples

明日は早く起きなければならない。

I have to get up early tomorrow.

毎日薬を飲まなければなりません。

I have to take medicine every day.

今すぐ宿題をしなければならない。

I must do my homework right now.

Mini-quiz

"kaigi ni de___." (I must attend the meeting)