43954
While playing a Japanese mobile horror game, a girl appears with a knife in
hand and says the following:

> 「おとなしくしてなきゃダメじゃない」

I can guess this probably means something like _It's a problem if you don't
stay quiet, isn't it?_ but I have problem parsing the てなきゃ: is it from してある
(state), as in ドアをあけてあった?

Is the "transitive verb"てある grammar at work here?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-28T12:59:41.277
43951
2017-02-28T14:47:37.630
11849
question
grammar て-form transitivity
Meaning of てなきゃ in this sentence?
してなきゃ is していなければ, and it's the result of these three contractions:

  1. していなければ → してなければ (`-inai` to `-nai` / `-iru` to `-ru` / `-imasu` to `-masu`, discussed [here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/18159/5010) and [here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/12802/5010))
  2. してなければ → してなけりゃ (`-eba` to `-ya` contraction, discussed [here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/12525/5010) and [here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/12580/5010))
  3. してなけりゃ → してなきゃ (`-erya` to `-ya` contraction, discussed [here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/12580/5010))

～なければだめ, ～ないとだめ, ～なければいけない and so on are very common double-negative
construction. These literally mean "if not then it's not good", but usually
you can translate them just as "must" or "have to".

  * [What does 辞書形＋といけない mean?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/33384/5010)
  * [Help me to understand やらなきゃいけない and やらなきゃならない](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/42861/5010)

じゃない at the end adds "..., okay?", "..., right?" or "..., you know?" feeling
to the sentence.

  * [「～たじゃない」 expression in spoken Japanese](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/453/5010)

So the whole sentence means "You have to stay calm, okay?", "You must keep
quiet, you know?", etc.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-28T14:47:37.630
43954
2017-02-28T14:47:37.630
2017-04-13T12:43:44.863
-1
5010
43951
answer