What does 言わなきゃいいだけ mean?


I came across this sentence, and I've been trying to figure out it's exact
meaning.

> 要は言わなきゃいいだけの話です。

First we have the 言わなきゃいい, which means "it doesn't have to be said".

It is followed by a verb + だけ construct, that is used to trivialize the verb,
thus so far we have something like "You simply don't have to talk about that".

Combining all this in the sentence rationally, I came to the conclusion that
it means the following:

> The point is, it's a topic that you simply shouldn't touch.

For some reason though, my gut feeling tells me that it is more complicated
though, one other possible meaning that I can think of:

> The point is, this should be obvious to anyone / shouldn't even be
> mentioned.

Is one of these translations correct?




You are on the right track here.

> 「Phrase or Mini-Sentence + だけの話{はなし}（だ/です/である, etc.）」

should be treated as a set phrase meaning:

> "(Phrase or Mini-Sentence). **It's as simple as that**."

You might as well remember that we often place 「 **という** 」 right in front of
「だけの話」. That would be for a little emphasis on what you want to state using
this structure.

Also fairly common is the format below:

> 「(Full Sentence(s)/Explanation). （ただ）それだけの話だ。」




You are on the right track here.

> 「Phrase or Mini-Sentence + だけの話{はなし}（だ/です/である, etc.）」

should be treated as a set phrase meaning:

> "(Phrase or Mini-Sentence). **It's as simple as that**."

You might as well remember that we often place 「 **という** 」 right in front of
「だけの話」. That would be for a little emphasis on what you want to state using
this structure.

Also fairly common is the format below:

> 「(Full Sentence(s)/Explanation). （ただ）それだけの話だ。」

