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How to use ~かな with a negative Hello everyone, This phrase ~かな, is for "I wonder...", right? So when used with a negative, how does it work? I found one example on the WWWJDIC site; あのラジオをとめてくれないかなぁ。 I wish they would turn off the radio. But, this example has とめてくれない, which is negative. Doesn't this mean "I wish they wouldn't turn off the radio"? Can someone show me another example? I'm confused! Thank you very much~~~
Oct 3, 2008 2:30 PM
Answers · 1
The expression とめてくれないか seems like negative indeed. But it actually means an affirmative action. It is a little similar to an English expression "(not) mind ...ing", which is literally negative but what it actually means is quite positive (like "agree to do something"). I guess you already know that "~ませんか?" sounds more moderate and sometimes politer than "~ますか?" in Japanese. The same connotation applies here. "とめてくれないかな" sounds more moderate than "とめてくれるかな". For your information, when you would like to form a negative sentence, you can say "あのラジオをとめないで(おいて)くれるかな" or "あのラジオをとめないで(おいて)くれないかな"  (though the latter is quite confusing as it seems double-negative).
October 3, 2008
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