In Japanese, ~nai to ～ないと generally translates to "if not," or "if [you] don't," or "when [you] don't." It's the i-adjective nai ない plus the conditional to と. Note that it could also be another use of the to と particle, or even a different word, like naito ナイト, "night" or "knight."

Some examples:

• benkyou shinai to daburu
  勉強しないとダブる
  If [you] don't study, [you] will repeat a year.
  • benkyou shinai to ikenai
    勉強しないといけない
    If [you] don't study, [it] can't go. (literally.)
    If [you] don't study, [it will be bad]. (therefore...)
    You must study. You have to study.
    • See also: ~nakucha ～なくちゃ, ~nakya ～なきゃ.
• okane ga nai to komaru
  お金が無いと困る
  If [you] don't have money, [I] will be troubled.
  Without money, [I] will be troubled.
• bakuhatsu shinai to omou
  爆発しないと思う
  [It] won't explode, is what I think. (this isn't the conditional to と, this is the quoting particle.)
  [I] think that [it] won't explode.

In Japanese, the conditional to と refers to the to と particle when it's used as a conjunction. That's because it often translates to "if X, Y," or "when X, Y."

For example: hashiru to tsukareru 走ると疲れる, means "if [I] run, [I] get tired," or "when [I] run, [I] get tired."

• Usage
  
  • Observations
  • Recurrences
• Grammar
  
  • vs. ～たら
  • vs. Quoting と

Among verb types, intransitive, transitive, and ditransitive verbs are verbs of varying transitivity. A ditransitive verb has three arguments: subject, direct object, and indirect object. A transitive verb has two: a subject and a direct object. An intransitive verb only has one: a subject.

Normally, you wouldn't have any problem with such verbs, except that in Japanese they work differently from how they do in English, and most people have trouble with transitive-intransitive verb pairs, which take different particles.

• Transitivity
• Indirect Objects
• Topicalization
  
  • Ellipsis
  • Relativization
• Ambitransitive Verbs
  
  • Polysemy
  • Ergativity
    
    • Transitive-Intransitive Verb Pairs
• References

In grammar, adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. For example: to speak quickly, to be very fast, and to run very quickly have the adverbs "very" and "quickly."

In Japanese, "adverbs," fukushi 副詞, do exactly the same thing, except that Japanese adverbs are a bit different from English adverbs..

• Types
• Grammar
  
  • Constructions
  • Topicalization
• References

In Japanese, case markers are particles that mark nouns and noun phrases with a "grammatical case," such nominative and accusative, or subject and object.

In Japanese, case marking particles are called kaku-joshi 格助詞.

• List
• Grammar
• References

In Japanese, parallel markers are particles that translate to "and" and "or" in English. They're parallel marking particles because they put nouns and nouns phrases in parallel. The Japanese term for them is heiritsu-joshi 並立助詞, "lining-up particles."

• List
  
  • Examples
• References

In Japanese, the to と particle has various functions.

• Parallel Marker
• Comitative Case Marker
  
  • Comparisons
• Conjunction
• Quoting Particle
• Adverbializer
• Compounds
• References

Among verb types, an ergative verb pair refers to an intransitive-transitive verb pair, where the subject of the intransitive is the object of the transitive, and the transitive expresses the causation of the intransitive event. Although there are some exceptions, like ditransitive verbs.

For example: ageru 上げる, "to raise," and agaru 上がる, "to rise," form an ergative verb pair both in English and in Japanese. If "you raise something" (object), you cause: "something rises." (subject)

• Ergative Alternation
• Disparity
  
  • Perfect and Progressive
• Types
  
  • Change-of-State
  • Existence
  • Inherently Directed Motion
  • Causation
  • Permission
  • Exchange
  • Discrepant
  • Non-Lexical
  • なる・する
• Morphology
  
  • Patterns
• References

Among verb types, unaccusative verbs are intransitive verbs whose subject is the patient of the action. For example:

• nan'i-do wo ageru
  難易度を上げる
  To raise the difficult-level.
  • nan'i-do wo - patient, accusative case.
• nan'i-do ga agaru
  難易度が上がる
  The difficult-level rises.
  
  • nan'i-do ga - patient, nominative case.

Above, agaru is an unaccusative verb, and ageru is its lexical causative verb counterpart. Together, they form an ergative verb pair. The article about the verb pairs contains details on how both types of verbs work in Japanese.

By the way, the opposite of an unaccusative verb is called an unergative verb, whose subject is the agent, unless in passive voice.

Among verb types, lexical causative verbs are transitive verbs that form causative sentences without being conjugated to the causative form. For example:

• musume ga naku
  娘が泣く
  The daughter cries.
• musume wo nakasu
  娘を泣かす
  To cause: the daughter cries.
  To make the daughter cry.

Above, we have the intransitive verb naku 泣く, "to cry," and the lexical causative verb nakasu 泣かす, "to make cry." Together, they form an ergative verb pair. The article about verb pairs explains the grammar in detail. This article will focus only on the verbs themselves.

• Grammar

In Japanese, "causatives," shieki 使役, happen when the subject of a sentence causes a causee to perform an action, where "causing" means either "forcing" or "allowing." Causative sentences usually feature verbs in the causative form, like suru する becoming saseru させる.

For example: kekkon saseta 結婚させた is a causative meaning either "[a causer] made [a causee] marry [someone]" or "[a causer] let [a causee] marry [someone]."

• Usage
  
  • Effect
  • Coercion
  • Persuasion
  • Permission
  • Prohibition
  • Opportunity
  • Appointment
• Grammar
  
  • Conjugation
    
    • Passivization
  • Lexical Causatives
  • Particles
    
    • を行かせる vs. に行かせる
    • を vs. に Nuance
• Topicalization
• Relativization
• References

In Japanese, the suffering passive is when a sentence in passive voice has a subject that's negatively affected by an action without being directly involved in it. For example:

• Tarou ga ame ni furareta
  太郎が雨に振られた
  Tarou is suffering because:
  • ame ga futta
    雨が降った
    The rain fell from the sky.
    The rain is raining.
    It's raining.
  • Implicature: Tarou is inconvenienced by the rain.
• Tarou ga Hanako ni shinareta
  太郎が花子に死なれた
  Tarou is suffering because:
  • Hanako ga shinda
    花子が死んだ
    Hanako died.
  • Implicature: Tarou was a friend of Hanako.

They're also called adversity passives or "indirect passives," kansetsu-ukemi 間接受身.

• Usage

In grammar, the passive voice is when the subject and object appear to switch roles. In active voice, the subject is generally the agent and the object is the patient: the cat ate the rat. In passive voice, the subject is the patient instead: the rat was eaten by the cat.

In Japanese, the passive voice, ukemi 受け身, is identified by the verb being in the passive form: suru する "to do," is active voice, sareru される "to be done," is passive voice. The way particles are used in the passive voice is different, and there are different types of passives.

• Grammar
  
  • Conjugation
  • Agency
• Types of Passives
  
  • Direct Passives
  • Indirect Passives
  • Possessive Passives
• Topicalization
• Other Constructions
  
  • から
  • によって
  • の手で
  • 自分の
• Argument Omission
• Relativization
• References

In Japanese, a double-subject construction is when you have two subjects in a single sentence, called large subject and small subject, where the predicate of the large subject is a predicative clause containing the small subject plus the small subject's predicate.

In practice: zou ga hana ga nagai 象が鼻が長い, "elephants have long noses," or "about elephants: about [their] noses: long," has the large subject zou predicated by the clause hana ga nagai, which contains the small subject hana predicated by nagai.

The patterns AがBがC, AはBがC, AにBがC, AにはBがC, BがC, C, AがBC, AにBC, among others often form double-subject sentences. Among these, some have two nominative subjects, and thus are also called double-nominative sentences.

• Usage
  
  • Possessives
    
    • Relationships
    • Experiences
  • Triple-Subjects
  • Cognitives
  • Potentials
  • Desideratives
  • Necessities
• Grammar
  
  • Terminology
  • Predicates
  • Vs. Other Possessives
  • Contrastive Small Subject
  • Ordering
  • Topicalization
  • Usage of Nouns Phrases
    
    • Dative Large Subject VPs
  • Transitivity Disparity
  • Ellipsis
  • Null-Marked Small Subject
  • Predicate Suffixation
  • Genitive Subject
  • Relativization
  • Dative Subject
  • Large Subject Control
• References

In this article I'll explain the difference between the de で particle and the ni に particle. Note that one particle has a mountain of different functions, while the other one has a Mt. Fuji of different functions, and not all of them will be discussed in this article.

Check the particles' respective articles for further details.

• Adverbs
• Place
  
  • にある vs. である
  • でいる vs. にいる
  • に住む vs.で暮らす
  • に止まる vs. で止まる
  • に寝る vs. で寝る
  • vs. Other Particles
• Time