～て + くれないWon't you?, Will you?, Could you?, Can you?, Would you?

These expressions are used with a rising intonation

Structure

Verb［て］+ くれない (か) ？
Verb［て］+ もらえない (か) ？

Could you not
Verb［ないで］+ くれない (か) ？
Verb［ないで］+ もらえない (か) ？

Levels of politeness

Details

About てくれない・てもらえない

When used in the negative, てくれない (coming from てくれる), and てもらえない (coming from てもらえる), are similar to the negative question form of じゃないか. They express the following:

てくれない - Would you not do (A) for me?

てもらえない - Could I not have you do (A) for me?

In both of these constructions. か (the question particle) may be omitted. However, they do sound slightly more polite when か is used.

Let's examine the following list, for a scale of the level of politeness.

てくれ, てくれる, てもらえる, てくれない (か), てもらえない (か)

Caution

Despite the above list, てくれ may be considered a bit rude, and should be avoided in most situations.

Examples

--:--

スマホを使(つか)わせてくれないか？

Won't you let me use your phone?

お茶(ちゃ)を入(い)れてくれない？

Won't you make some tea for me?

うちでも働(はたら)いてくれない？

Won't you work at my place (for me) too?

こっちに醤油(しょうゆ)を取(と)ってもらえない？

Won't you pass (take) the soy sauce (for me)?

米(こめ)を炊(た)いておいてくれない？

Won't you cook some rice (in advance) for me?

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てくれない・てもらえない – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (15 in total)

bilowik
For applying this to negated verbs, why is it ないでくれ～ and not なくてくれ～? I’ve seen this ないで used over なくて in another grammar point but it was clear that it was more of a “with” nuance, but I haven’t been able to discern why this is the case here.
Fuga
Hey @bilowik !

The ないで used in ないでくれない and ないでもらえない is ないで that is used when making a request. なくて would not work here since it doesn’t have the nuance of request.

I hope this clears it up!
allanw
In the resources section for this grammar point, there’s a reference to Tobira on page 282. I had a look and couldn’t seem to find any matching grammar points on that page - can you confirm? Thanks!