What do these ''must do'' sentences like ''ikanakutewaikemasen'' literally mean? What is gramatically going on?


As far as I get it, to create a must do sentence, you need to take the
negative te form + wa + ikemasen/naranai/narimasen/dame.

What does this literally mean? Why is it a double negative? How does this
change the meaning to needing to do something?




It literally means "not going (ikanakutewa) doesn't work (ikemasen)" or "I
can't not go".

