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In the sentence 解いてから帰らないとすっきりしないんだ, from the context I know it means "If I
don't go home after solving it, it won't be refreshing" but I just can't make
sense of the grammar, below are the two ways I am thinking about it:

I must solve it then go home (NOTHING) I won't be "relieved" (considering と to
be an abbreviation of 帰らないといけない)

If I solve it then don't go home I won't be relieved (assume と is just a
normal conditional と)

Can anyone explain it differently to help my brain understand why it means
what it does without context?
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2021-05-24T02:11:23.777
86787
2022-09-10T03:51:07.720
2022-09-08T09:02:59.063
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question
grammar negation conditionals particle-から scope
Having trouble making sense of the sentence "解いてから帰らないとすっきりしないんだ"
The と is a normal conditional と.

The scope of the negation (～ない) is the whole 解いてから帰る, not just 帰る.  
I think you can think of it this way:

> ［解いてから帰(る)］+ ないと、すっきりしないんだ  
>  → If I don't do "解いてから帰る", I won't be relieved.  
>  → _lit._ If I don't [go home after solving it], I won't be relieved.  
>  i.e. If I don't solve it before going home, I won't be relieved.

Some example sentences with this structure that I think you might come across
in daily life:

> 「豚肉は加熱して **から** 食べ **ないと** いけません。」  
>  「予約して **から** 行か **ないと** 待たされます。」  
>  「化粧を落として **から** 寝 **ないと** 肌に悪いですよ。」  
>  「体を洗って **から** 湯船に入ら **ないと** ダメですよ。」  
>  「お互いのことをよく知って **から** 結婚し **ないと** 、うまくいかないと思います。」
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2021-05-24T02:23:21.453
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2022-09-10T03:51:07.720
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answer
I think you could look at it this way.

から binds 解く and 帰る closer to each other than 帰る is bound to ないと. Thus, 解いてから帰る
refers to an act of doing those two things in that order. Unless you do that,
your mind won’t get cleared.

The second interpretation is not completely impossible but から sounds a bit
jarring in that case. 解いて帰らないと would be more ambiguous, in which case you
might need to rely on the way the sentence is pronounced to get the correct
meaning.
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2021-05-24T02:40:18.503
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2021-05-24T02:40:18.503
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answer