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I am using an easy-to-read VN to get some grammar experience. The following
sentence has been troubling me for about half an hour now:

> 生徒会に入ったら、どうしてもこっちを着なきゃだめなの？

The topic of 着る is 制服 if that will help understand it better.

I have no problem understanding the first clause「生徒会に入った **ら** ー」: " **When**
(you) join the student council..."

My first doubt comes with the 「どうしても」, does it mean something like "by all
means"? However, the biggest problem I have is wrapping my mind around this
(triple negative?): 「着なきゃだめなの?」

So here's what I know: 「なきゃ」 is casual for「なければ」 and together with 「だめ」 it
would mean "Gotta wear (uniform)" or less casual "Must wear (uniform)".
However, since it's 「だめな(い)」 I got really confused. Does 「着なきゃだめ **な** 」
altogether mean "Must not wear (uniform)"?

I am sorry if the explanation is messy, but I tried to write down my thought
process. ~~At some point I also became uncertain whether the topic is 制服 due
to the を particle in this sentence (I expected 「に」particle after 「こっち」
"here").~~

Please point me in the right direction and if it isn't too much, an
idiomatically correct translation would also be much appreciated as I feel it
would help me figure out the X by knowing Y.

### Edit 1:

The topic is confirmed to be 制服. I translated こっち as "here", rather than the
correct "this", referring to the school uniform.
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2014-08-25T01:39:42.853
18395
2014-08-25T02:32:12.737
2014-08-25T02:22:15.447
5131
5131
question
grammar translation negation conditionals
Trouble parsing sentence with どうしても and a triple negative
`なの？` is the plain form of `ですか？`, not a negative.

`どうしても` can be understood as "no matter what" in this context.

Is that enough to help you understand the meaning of the sentence?
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2014-08-25T02:27:59.160
18397
2014-08-25T02:27:59.160
3097
18395
answer
Where to start...

「どうしても」, in this context, means "no matter what". The nuance is "One has no
choice but to ~~." This is an extremely common phrase.

Regarding the "triple" negative, it is only **"double"** at best in reality.
By the Japanese standard, it is actually only "single".

> 「[着]{き}なきゃだめなの」

Negative #1 = 着なきゃ, colloquial for 着なければ ("if I do not wear")

Negative #2 = だめ ("no good"). It looks like negative if translated into "no
good", but the word だめ is NOT negative in Japanese.

なの is affirmative despite what you stated. There is no ない embedded in it. なの
is an affirmative question-ender.

「着なきゃだめなの？」 therefore, literally means "Is it no good if I don't wear ~~?".
More naturally, "Do I have to wear ~~?"

「こっち」 here colloquially means "this one (rather than the other one)" . The
other one is called 「あっち」.

> 「[生徒会]{せいとかい}に[入]{はい}ったら、どうしてもこっちを着なきゃだめなの？」

therefore means: "Would I have to wear this one no matter what if I joined the
Student Council?"
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-08-25T02:32:12.737
18398
2014-08-25T02:32:12.737
18395
answer