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KyleGoetz (Offline)
Attorney at Flaw
 
Posts: 2,965
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Texas
02-06-2010, 02:48 AM

I think Yuusuke could benefit from a simple breakdown of the grammar. Basically, the structure of it is:
Quote:
V-neg-ば-form + ならない/いけない
Also note you can contract なければ into なきゃ, so you will often hear in casual conversation something like 食べなきゃ.
It does indeed mean "must."
行かなければならない = I must go.
行かなきゃならない = I gotta go!
etc.

I personally use ならない over いけない, but there's no real rhyme or reason why. As far as I know, they mean exactly the same thing in this situation. If there's a slight connotative difference, I don't know about it.
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