View Single Post
(#8 (permalink))
Old
Columbine's Avatar
Columbine (Offline)
Busier Than Shinjuku Station
 
Posts: 1,466
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: United Kingdom
03-06-2010, 10:48 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerry1234 View Post

The use of this phrase is coming up a lot in my materials, and it seems that its using a negative to describe a positive action, which is thoroughly confusing me.
Other's already have explained it but that's why I said it is a double negative. In Japanese the standard is to say "You can't not do something" rather than "You must" but for simplicity's sake it's translated as "you must". It's just another example of how Japanese language tends to be round-about in meaning.
Reply With Quote