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For the sentence "The container quality has to be good. Only then would the contents inside be good."

My teacher suggested "入れ物の品質がよくなければ、中身もよくない"

But I'm not sure this conveys the necessary condition of the container quality being good for the stuff inside it to be good as well. I was also considering 中身の良さのために、入れ物の品質の良さが必要です works but it sounds a bit clunky to me.

wireman
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  • Seems related: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/32182/how-do-you-say-if-and-only-if-in-japanese – flowsnake Feb 22 '21 at 11:47

1 Answers1

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"入れ物の品質がよくなければ、中身もよくない" means "If the container is not good, then the contents are not good".

That means, if the container is not good, the contents can't be good. However, just because the container is good, doesn't mean the contents are necessarily good (they can still be bad).

If that's what you are trying to say, "入れ物の品質がよくなければ、中身もよくない" is perfectly good.

If the container determines if the content is good or bad (so that, if the container is good the content is always good, and if bad the content is always bad), you could say "入れ物の品質が、中身の品質を決める", "入れ物が良ければ中身も良いし、よくなければ中身もよくない".

Enno Shioji
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