80508
I found the following sentence in a Japanese textbook:

"明日の試合に勝ちたいなら、きっと練習しなければ。 If you want to win tomorrow's game, you must
practice."

This was in a section to do with なら, there was no explaination provided
regarding the second half of the sentence. However the second half confuses
me. Why does 練習しなければ mean 'must practice'?

I understand that 練習しなければ is the negative conditional form of 練習する, which
should mean "If I don't practice" or "unless I practice". Is this just an
additional way to use this form (i.e. the negative conditional form for X can
also mean 'must X')?

Is this a shortening of 練習しなければならない? This makes sense to me, but I can't find
any info online that suggests it's grammatically correct to shorten/contract
'練習しなければならない' in this way.
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2020-09-05T13:46:51.353
80506
2020-09-05T18:40:56.117
40214
question
grammar negation conditionals
What does '練習しなければ' mean on its own?
You have answered your own question. It is indeed short for 練習しなければならない. It is
quite clear from the context what the natural conclusion of 練習しなければ is, so
there is no need to say it. The more you study Japanese the more of these
unfinished sentences you will find.

The Japanese seem to have a proclivity for omitting unnecessary information in
conversation, but this example is not that unusual even in English. If you
said the sentence "If you don't practise" with rising intonation it would
strongly suggest that "things won't go well" is the natural completion, i.e.
you must practise.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-05T18:40:56.117
80508
2020-09-05T18:40:56.117
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80506
answer