Chinese, Mandarin

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Persian, Dari

Persian, Western

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek, Modern

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

<p>
	To say that you have to or must do something, you can use a <strong>verb in plain negative form + ~と　いけない</strong>.
	Here the particle <strong>と</strong> in this phrase can be translated as <strong>if</strong>,
	so the phrase literally means, <strong>if not ... then it can't go</strong>.
</p> 

<table class="ui celled table">
    <tbody>
		<tr data-item="267155"></tr>
		<tr data-item="267158"></tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

<p>
	You can also use <strong>いけません</strong> in place of <strong>いけない</strong> to make the sentence more formal.
</p>

<table class="ui celled table">
    <tbody>
		<tr data-item="267156"></tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

<p>
	It's also possible to replace <strong>といけない</strong> with <strong>とダメです</strong>.
	<strong>ダメ</strong> essentially means <strong>no good</strong>,
	so the phrase <strong>verb in plain negative form + ~と　ダメです</strong> literally means <strong>if not ... then it's no good</strong>. 
	Note that <strong>ダメ</strong> is spelled using katakana here, but in other cases it's often spelled using hiragana.
</p>

<table class="ui celled table">
    <tbody>
		<tr data-item="267162"></tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

<p>
	In very informal situations you can simply use the <strong>verb in plain negative form + ~と</strong>, omitting the final <strong>いけない</strong>.
</p>

<table class="ui celled table">
    <tbody>
		<tr data-item="267163"></tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

<p>
	There are also different ways to say <strong>must do</strong>, but we will look at those in a later lesson.
</p>

Have to do - ないといけない

hiragana character

kanji

adnominal

adverb

auxiliary

conjunction

compound

i-adjective

interjection

noun

na-adjective

numeral

particle

case particle

conjunctive particle

discourse particle

prefix

pronoun

suffix

verb

sentence

hiragana writing

kanji writing

kanji component

reading vocabulary

katakana writing

katakana character

godan - group 1

itidan - group 2

group 3

transitive

intransitive

proper noun

discourse

phrase

expression

adjectival noun

adverbial phrase

adjectival phrase

The verb to be

Hiragana 1

Kanji 1

Writing hiragana 1

Writing kanji 1

Hiragana 2

Kanji 2

The question particle か

Writing hiragana 2

This one and that one

Writing kanji 2

Reading exercise 1

Reading exercise 2

Hiragana 3

Negating nouns

Writing hiragana 3

The topic particle は

Kanji 3

The possession particle の

い-adjectives and な-adjectives

The subject particle が

Here and there

There is, there are

Writing kanji 3

Kanji 4

Group 1 verbs, direct and indirect objects

Group 2 verbs

Hiragana 4

Verbs in the past tense

Negating verbs

Invitations and the particle と

Negating past verbs

Writing hiragana 4

Reading exercise 3

Writing kanji 4

Reading exercise 4

Kanji 5

Nouns and the past tense

This and that

The group 3 verbs する and 来る

The discourse particles ね and よ

The location particles に and で

Hiragana 5

Writing hiragana 5

Writing kanji 5

The destination particles に and へ

Kanji 6

The origin particle から

Hiragana 6

Relative positions

Conjugating い-adjectives

Writing hiragana 6

Writing kanji 6

Hiragana 7

Writing hiragana 7

Kanji 7

Conjugating な-adjectives

How are you?

The particle も

The word ちょっと

Reading exercise 7

Question	Answer
if	とto
to have to do 〜	〜ない　と　いけない〜nai to ikenai
I’m so tired already. I have to sleep soon.	もう、　とても　疲つかれて　いる。　　すぐ　寝ねない　と　いけない。mou, totemo tukarete iru. sugu nenai to ikenai.
guest; customer	(お)客きゃく(さん)(o)kyaku(san)
difficult; hard	難むずかしいmuzukasii
That teacher’s class is hard. The homework has to be written in Japanese.	あの　先せん生せい　の　授じゅ業ぎょう　は　難むずかしい　です。　宿しゅく題だい　は　日に本ほん語ご　で　書かかない　と　いけない。ano sensei no zyugyou ha muzukasii desu. syukudai ha nihongo de kakanai to ikenai.
We have to clean before the guests come.	お客きゃくさん　が　来くる　前まえ　に、　掃そう除じしない　と　いけません。okyakusan ga kuru mae ni, souzisinai to ikemasen.
Do I have to take the exam?	テスト　を　とらない　と　いけません　か。tesuto wo toranai to ikemasen ka.
no good, useless	だめdame
to have to do 〜	〜ない　と　ダメ　(です)〜nai to dame (desu)
Children have to go to school every day.	子こ供ども　は　毎まい日にち　学が校っこう　に　行いかない　と　ダメ　です。kodomo ha mainiti gakkou ni ikanai to dame desu.
mind, heart	気きki
to take care; to be careful	気き　を　付つけるki wo tukeru
extremely^slang	めちゃmetya
Watch out. It’s super hot. You have to drink some water.	気き　を　付つけて　ね。　めちゃ　熱あつい。　水みず　を　飲のまない　と。ki wo tukete ne. metya atui. mizu wo nomanai to.

Japanese 282 - Have to do - ないといけない

Contributors