What is going on with “nakerebanaranai”?

3 comments

1. only the first three are likely to be used or heard, and the first two are identical (just short or masu form of なる)

   also なくては and ないと can substitute for なければ

   don’t memorize them all, they’re just conjugations you should already know or will eventually know

   “if i don’t do X, it won’t work out well” is how you say “must X”

   all you need to remember is that なったら and ないなら negative-ifs cannot be used in this construct

   they’re critical to learn because if nothing else in casual japanese the second half is usually left off, i.e. 帰らなければ alone means “i have to go home” (usually contracted to 帰らなきゃ which is the same thing just informal/casual)

   べき can’t be used in the same way and is a lot stricter or more formal sounding, maybe like “i am required to go home”

2. べき doesn’t mean “must do”, it means “is expected to be done”, specifically by oneself. はず refers to the outside – something is expected to happen or be true.

   Think of it that way, Japanese often operates in double negatives in regards to the phrases you mentioned. These and the いけないとならない are a 2-sided conditional. They can also be split so you can have

   〜なければ〜ならない – if something can’t be done/made, it won’t happen => it should/must be done.

   There is a minor nuance of using なければならない vs なければいけない, but I never noticed it being super relevant. 〜ねば is a more fanciful version of 〜なければ. ねばならぬ is a more old-school version of ねばならない, I think often in relative clauses.

3. They all come at the end of a sentence. There doesn’t need to be a “trick” to remember them cause they all sound similar enough so if you remember one you will be able to recall what the rest mean no problem.

   It may however help to note that these are all in the general form of conditional + result.
   You can use any other conditional + result constructions to achieve the same sort of thing, i,e ~~といけない