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JLPT N4Expressions

てくれませんか— Would you please do (for me)

A polite request asking someone to do something for the speaker. More polite than てくれない, less formal than ていただけませんか.

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A short lesson: the pattern, its sentence anatomy, a quick quiz and a sentence to build.

Pro lessonUNIT 102 · EXPRESSIONS

Structure · 形

[Verb te-form] + くれませんか

Examples · 例文

  • もう少し大きい声で話してくれませんか。

    Mō sukoshi ōkii koe de hanashite kuremasen ka.

    Could you speak a little louder?

    話して + くれませんか = polite request

  • この荷物を持ってくれませんか。

    Kono nimotsu o motte kuremasen ka.

    Could you carry this luggage?

    持って + くれませんか

  • すみません、写真を撮ってくれませんか。

    Sumimasen, shashin o totte kuremasen ka.

    Excuse me, could you take a photo for me?

    撮って + くれませんか = polite request to take a photo

Usage notes · 注意

  • Request politeness: てくれない (casual) < てくれませんか (polite) < ていただけませんか (very polite/formal).
  • Summary: てくれませんか is appropriate for most daily situations with strangers or semi-formal contexts.

Commonly confused with

The JLPT rarely asks whether you recognise a pattern — it asks which of several similar patterns fits. These are the ones てくれませんか is tested against.

vsていただけませんか

ていただけませんか uses the humble もらう→いただく and is more formal/deferential; てくれませんか is polite but a step less formal.

vsてくれない

てくれない is the casual peer-level version; てくれませんか adds ます-politeness for strangers or semi-formal settings.

vsてもらえませんか

てもらえませんか frames the favor from the speaker's receiving side and is roughly equally polite; てくれませんか frames it from the doer's side.

More expressions

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