I still don’t understand the difference between nakereba naranai and zaru o enai. They both seem to mean someone must do something according to the examples. Also, where does the “zaru” come from? What kanji does it relate to and what is the meaning? Does “enai” come from eru? I need more explanation.

Glad to hear that this series is still going, since there’s been a lack of Sakura lately. I’m about 20 lessons behind though, and have taken a break to review the lower intermediate lessons, so I’ll have to catch up with Agnes later

Neilさん、thanks for the questions.

“nakereba naranai” is roughly equivalent to the English phrases “have to”, “should” or “must,” while
“zaru o enai” is roughly equivalent to the English phrase “have no choice but to~.” While the meanings are quite similar, in the case of the latter, there is the nuanance that what must be done is not what the speaker would like to do.

enai->得る (eru)

変えなきゃならなくなった (nakya naranakunatta) - is the same as nakereba naranai, with the addition of the verb “naru.”

nakereba -> nakya
naranakunatta is the past tense of naranakunaru
naranai -> naranakunaru (-kunaru is attached to naranai, so we drop the i -> narana and attach kunaru (to become) narana-kunaru.

変えなきゃならなくなった. (lit. closer to “It became that I had to change” (the color)) I had to change colors.

A nice, very challenging lesson, and with grammatical constructions that I had heard before but did not understand. Good job!

As for the premium content questions, please take a look at the grammar and vocabulary questions. Each question should have 4 multiple choice buttons corresponding to the four answers, but instead there are only two buttons with the three wrong answers grouped together behind one of the buttons.

JPL は同じようにしたら、うれしいんですけど。

Haha nice one Bob1!

Bob1さん、毎度ありがとうございます！ おめでとうございます！As a reward for all you’re hard work, we’re giving you admin rights, so could you please proof lessons 1-600.
よろしくお願いします！
締め切りは来週の金曜日でございます。

サクラさん、どうやって洗濯機の中まで入ってしまいましたか。。。　 　

アグネスさんのストーリ、大好きです～！　

Thanks very much for the extra help.

Peter,

Thanks for seeing to it that the premium questions for this lesson got fixed. Actually, must of the other recent intermediate lessons suffer from the same problem, so it’s a good thing you gave me administrative access.

Actually those questions are really valuable. I may think I know the content, but those questions have a way of showing me that I haven’t really mastered it. And I just sent in my registration today for the JLPT (level 2). JapanesePod101 is listed as my “school”, so I’ll try not to shame you too drastically. So no time for proof-reading all your lessons; I’ve got to buckle down on those 600 kanji (my huge weakness) they expect me to know!

all fixed thanks for the heads up!

good luck on your level 2, it’s a biiiiiiig jump from 3!

marky