posted by lakers4sho on March 9, 2014 | 4 comments
I'm still confused how to translate such a construction into English. Is it some sort of double negative?

ie. 不得不爱

不得 = must not

不爱 = not love

must not not love = must love?
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murrayjames on March 9, 2014 | reply
lakers4sho,

不得不 is an expression meaning 不能不；只能 ("cannot but," "have no choice but to," or "can't help" in English). The basic construction is 不得不 + verb. So:

我不得不爱他 = I can't help but love him.

《不得不爱》is also the name of a mediocre Chinese pop song.

624223084 on March 22, 2014 | reply
yes, you can also think it in that way.

不得 = mustn't

不爱 = not love

or

不得不 = have to / can't but