More Ways to Get People to Do Things For You and also how to Not Get People to Do Things For You

In asking people to do things I went over using -ください for nouns and verbs for politely commanding someone to give you something or do something for you as well as 〜ちょうだい for more casual use and -くださいませんか for changing a polite command into a formal request. I will now list some more ways to ask people to do stuff for you below.

お/ご〜ください

As if there weren't enough different ways you can say ください, this one is a more formal instruction than ください on it's own. The way that this works is an honourific お or sometimes ご¹, then the verb's stem form², then ください (no て). This one is so formal that it is only ever used when you are instructing the listener to do something that they wanted to do anyway (the example Tofugu gives is "もし寒ければ、窓をお閉めください", which translates to "If it's cold, please close the windows", as the act of closing the windows is something they would have wanted to do if they were cold. Another way of thinking of it is it's like saying "feel free to do" something.

-てもらえませんか

This is another way of asking something respectfully - it is slightly more humble than ください and so comes across as "Could I ask you do do this for me" rather than "please do this". It uses the verb もらう (to receive), instead of くれる (to give (to me)), so it is acknowledging you are on the recieving end slightly more. Can be used with nouns as well, similarly to ください, with を instead.

-ていただけませんか

This is another example of a way to ask someone to do something respectfully that is more formal than ください and also more formal than もらえませんか. It comes across as "Could you please do this". It is often used in formal settings like staff speaking to customers.

-くれませんか

This one is like a slightly less formal version of くださいませんか. It uses the non-honorific version of ください, the verb くれる (to give (to me)). It is more casual than もらえませんか, but less casual than くださいませんか.

An aside about -ませんか

It is interesting that these all use ませんか verb ending, which is the negative form of the present and future tense verb ending ます. This does not mean "don't do this" however, and while you could use ます in these and they would be correct but they lower the formality. Even though I said something contradictory to this earlier, "Could you please do this" is actually a slightly better representative of the -ます ending, whereas "Wouldn't you you do this?" or "Why don't you do this?" is more representative of the -ませんか ending, where you are sort of inviting them to do it. There is another post's worth of content about the ways this can work.

Asking people NOT to do things

This was previously touched on in the last post but I will give it it's own section this time. To ask someone to not do something you use the 〜ない form of the verb, which is, as always, different depending on the ending of the verb.

Godan/う verbs

Generally this is done by removing the う sound and replacing it with the あ sound and adding ない, for example:

• つ to たない
• す to さない
• る to らない

however for verbs ending in only う you replace it with わない.

Ichidan/る verbs

This is done similarly to other times you mess with these fellas where you just remove the る and add ない, for example 食べる (taberu) to 食べない (tabenai)

Irregular Verbs

For the repeat customers 来る (kuru) and する they become 来ない (konai) and しない respectively. The -ない ending also has an extra irregular one in the verb ある, which is usually a godan verb, simply becoming ない instead of あらない. Maybe as homework you can find out what the deal with this is.

Using -ない to mean you don't want someone to do something

As mentioned in the other post, to use -ない you combine it with で and it goes roughly where -て would go. For example:

• 行かないでください (ikanaide kudasai) - Please don't go
• 行かないでくれませんか (ikanaide kuremasenka) - Wouldn't you not go (this is probably not particularly correct maybe it's more like "please don't go (slightly more polite)").

-ないで actually means "without" and can be used to pair together two verbs to mean "doing B without doing A", for example 飲まないで食べた (nomanaide tabete) means "they ate without drinking". Removing the verb after -ないで is what turns it into a request. 行かないで (ikanaide) could be used on it's own as a command form (throwback to ?commanding) to mean "don't go! (mildly rude)".

Using -ない to mean you do want someone to do something (wtf)

In the infinite potential of japanese you are able to use the -ない form of a verb in a way that makes it actually more of an invitation for someone to do the verb. For example, 行かないか (Ikanai ka) sort of means "aren't we going?" in the same way that using -ませんか makes the phrase mean "won't you do this?". The actual implication is more like "do you want to go/shall we go". Using it this way is quite casual but also sort of assertive. To make it less so, simply drop the -か and use intonation to imply that it is a question - 行かな.

End

Please enjoy this image I found while researching this post. The whole webpage was in english and my eyes glazed over the fact the pronunciation was initially in devanagari and so I thought they were just adding a secret humorous twist as an easter egg for those who could read hindi.

Google translate claims the twist is "I went to school without breakfast, and yet my friend thought I was a breakfast stealer". We shall never know the truth.