NihongoShark

JLPT N4: ～なくてはならない

This lesson will be a breeze... if you've already read these other lessons:
- JLPT N4: ～なければならない
- JLPT N4: ～なければいけない

The ～なくてはならない ending is used when saying that something "must" be done or be a certain way:

おすもうさんは、体がやわらかくなくてはならない。

おすもうさん　は、　からだ　が　やわらかくなくてはならない。

Sumo wrestlers need to be flexible [limber].

“お-sumo-san + は, + body + が + must be soft.”

It is also possible to say ～なくてはいけない (ending with いけない instead of ならない), which has the same meaning:

おすもうさんは、体がやわらかくなくてはいけない。

おすもうさん　は、　からだ　が　やわらかくなくてはいけない。

Sumo wrestlers need to be flexible [limber].

“お-sumo-san + は, + body + が + must be soft.”

The meaning of ～なくてはならない and ～なくてはいけない is pretty much the same as ～なければいけない, which we saw in our last lesson. It's also very similar to ～なければならない, except for the fact that ～なければならない is often used to describe things that "must" be done or be a certain way according to social conventions (as opposed to personal beliefs).

👷 Construction 👷

You will see ～なくてはならない being used with VERBS, i-adjectives, and na-adjectives and NOUNS in the following ways:

V なくてはならない
i-adjective く＋ なくてはならない
na-adjective / NOUN ＋で＋ なくてはならない

In lessons using ～なければ（ならない／いけない）we saw that ～なければ can morph into ～なきゃ, and the ならない／いけない ending can be dropped.

Something very similar happens with ～なくては（ならない／いけない）：～なくては can morph into ～なくちゃ, and the ならない／いけない ending can be dropped.

You'll find that it is more common for people to just say things like ～なきゃ and ～なくちゃ in spoken language. After all, who has time for all of those other syllables?!

↑ We have examples of all of this stuff in this lesson.

With that, all that's left is for us to power through a handful of example sentences. Once we do so, we will have covered all of the "must" grammar points!