TextFugu » Topic: I must do the cha cha.

I must do the cha cha.

thisiskyle — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 23:43:50 +0000

I’ve recently come across a casual/spoke/non-textbook thing that I could not decipher.

「その中のものを全部、出しちゃいましょう。」
Which means “Let’s take everything out of there.”
The problem for me was ～ちゃいましょう.
I asked my neighbor and she told me that this attached to a verb means to do something a bit naughty but not really bad, maybe like sneaking a cookie before dinner: 食べちゃいましょう. She also said that is is commonly shortened to ～ちゃおう.

Anyway, that reminded me of something I learned a while ago that I thought I’d share.
If you’ve ever tried to say “I must…” or “I have to…” in Japanese, you’ve probably been annoyed at how long it takes. A simple little phrase like “Gotta go.” becomes the tedious 「行かなければなりません。」or 「行かなくてはいけません。」. What a hassle.
Well it turns out these are often shortened, in casual speech, to 「行かなきゃならない。」 and 「行かなくちゃいけない。」 respectfully. Still to long? Try just 「行かなきゃ。」 or 「行かなくちゃ。」 which are still both fine in casual speech.

チャチャをしなくちゃ！

Reply To: I must do the cha cha.

MisterM2402 [Michael] — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:11:27 +0000

Odd… I was just reading Tae Kim’s page on “must” and it’s shortened forms haha What a coincidence.

Also remember that verbs whose negative form would be んだ use じゃ and ぎゃ. Apparently, this works for ぐ verbs too (as mentioned in the comments on that page).

Reply To: I must do the cha cha.

missingno15 — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 01:01:48 +0000

thisiskyle is a girl and i won’t say why. let’s see how long it takes for him to get it.

hint: One of these, is not like the other.

Reply To: I must do the cha cha.

Armando — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 01:09:24 +0000

@Missingno15, out of curiosity are you a guy or a girl? I’m guessing you’re a girl, but.. I’m not sure…

Reply To: I must do the cha cha.

missingno15 — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 01:18:42 +0000

I’m HYAKU パーセント woman. woot manpower

speaking of this grammar point, you can also use this grammar point to tell people not to do something. for you guys that don’t know, this is different that the negative te form. rather than telling someone directly to not do something, the grammar point covered by tae kim is more like saying “that kind of thing is not allowed here”.

in my favorite anime of all time, can you spot all the moments where the grammar point is used to tell people that they are not allowed to do something?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtR11X4t_nI

actual anime starts at 1:49 by the way

Reply To: I must do the cha cha.

thisiskyle — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 02:01:17 +0000

I was told that using the ～なくちゃ was a bit girly and that ～なきゃ was less so. If that’s what you’re referring to I was aware and just forgot. Although, as I said to the person who originally told me, I don’t much care. If it was something from the first quote (I couldn’t guess what), I should mention that it came from a fourteen year old girl in a book.
If you were referring to the ovaries, I’m just holding them for a friend.

Reply To: I must do the cha cha.

missingno15 — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 02:12:05 +0000

Yup thats the one. Also, yeah just saying. I was intending not to tell you, forever leaving you with the option to say なくちゃ but I didn’t. I was speaking with some Japanese dude friends and they all agreed that it sounds girly. Which reminds me, I have to read about that first one again.

LATER THOUGH

Reply To: I must do the cha cha.

Sheepy — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:14:44 +0000

Hey, let me expand on this grammar point. The ちゃう form basically implies that something was done, or completed, but was either out of your control or was regrettable. When I say out of your control I mean like “oh damn, I ate like 12 hamburgers”. lol

Thus, its normally linked to bad/naughty/negative things lol.

Oh and yeah なきゃ～ makes things so easy. Although you should remember its only an abbreviated form of なければ and not ならない. However the ならない is still implied.