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I learned that one way to form a "must" sentence is "negative verb + conditional + ダメ・ならない・いけない":

I mainly see two kinds of conditional used - the 仮定形 and と. For example

食べないとダメだ。

食べなければダメだ。

Then I thought, since と expresses a conditional that 100% will happen, like "if you drop an apple, it falls", does this mean that "must" sentences created with と express a stronger "must" than those created using the 仮定形?

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Sweeper
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1 Answers1

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It's not really whether one is "stronger" than the other, but instead a more "standard" form. I find the following:

〜なければ（なりません）

to be more common in instructional or written text, than say:

〜ないと（ダメ）

Part of the reason perhaps is prudence because it is quicker to say or understand, especially when you immediately need to call the listener's attention.

As a side note, I've seldom encountered the phrase

なければダメ

keithmaxx
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    「なければダメ」 is SO common. –  Nov 26 '17 at 12:04
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    Noted, but I DID say I personally only rarely come across it. I think of the なければなりません as a polite/formal set expression and ないと/なくちゃダメ as casual (perhaps just because it's quicker to say). But maybe that's just from my own personal experience. – keithmaxx Nov 30 '17 at 01:44