Usage of 「と」 in these 2 sentences, conditional or quotation? And how to differentiate I came across these two sentences, and I'm having trouble deciding whether these s are conditional, or quotation particles, or otherwise. If they are quotation, I do not understand which verb follows them to make it obvious that they are quotation, and if they are conditional I'm not sure where they go in the English translation, or how they make sense in the original Japanese. > 1. I tolerated it all this time but in this situation, I can't not go to the dentist. > > 2. Hearing the story from the boss, it seems like I can't not go on a business trip overseas no matter what. > > Is there an easy way to differentiate between conditional and quotation , other than quotation being followed by obvious verbs such as , , , etc.?

You can think of it like this:

The basic idea of particle is "A then B". As quotation is a kind of exception, **it is rare that quotation doesn't come with such verbs as etc** , though some fixed phrases might not.

As for your sentences, both follows the idea of "A then B".

1: Conditional -- but it might be the same as 2.

2: See 2-5 of this dictionary entry:

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