Don't you...? vs. You don't...?

[Tomii515]

A few weeks ago, I was hanging out with a friend who had a Japanese exchange student living with them. It was the last day of the exchange, so everyone came to their house that night. I was practicing my Japanese a little bit with the Japanese students, and everything was going fine. At one point, we were playing this dancing game and there was this girl sitting next to me just watching. So I leaned over and said something along the lines of:

「ダンスしたくないの？」

What I wanted to convey was "You don't want to dance?". Her response, in English, was:

"Yes, I want to do it."

I expected a different answer, but I still understood. It's obvious, if I said it in English, my question would've been "Don't you want to dance?".

So my question now is, is there any way in Japanese to distinguish, for example, "You don't want to dance?" and "Don't you want to dance?"

よろしくお願いします！

 

[Elizabeth]

A few weeks ago, I was hanging out with a friend who had a Japanese exchange student living with them. It was the last day of the exchange, so everyone came to their house that night. I was practicing my Japanese a little bit with the Japanese students, and everything was going fine. At one point, we were playing this dancing game and there was this girl sitting next to me just watching. So I leaned over and said something along the lines of:
「ダンスしたくないの？」
What I wanted to convey was "You don't want to dance?". Her response, in English, was:
"Yes, I want to do it."
I expected a different answer, but I still understood. It's obvious, if I said it in English, my question would've been "Don't you want to dance?".
So my question now is, is there any way in Japanese to distinguish, for example, "You don't want to dance?" and "Don't you want to dance?"
よろしくお願いします！

"Don't/Do you want to dance?" is what you asked in Japanese.

踊ろう？ ... 踊りたくないの？ 踊ろうよぉ？ 私と踊る 、というのはどう？(=Why don't you dance with me ?).

"You don't want to dance?" is almost inappropriate unless that is the reason you knew that she wasn't (still) dancing ("Are you sure you don't want to dance ?") or at least she had stopped dancing with you. So how did it work out ? The response IMO was just smart enough to fit either case.

Just from this brief description, both statements in English could easily be put out to sound inviting, confirmatory or accusatory. The Japanese will vary accordingly depending on tone, situation, etc.

 

[Elizabeth]

A few weeks ago, I was hanging out with a friend who had a Japanese exchange student living with them. It was the last day of the exchange, so everyone came to their house that night. I was practicing my Japanese a little bit with the Japanese students, and everything was going fine. At one point, we were playing this dancing game and there was this girl sitting next to me just watching. So I leaned over and said something along the lines of:
「ダンスしたくないの？」
What I wanted to convey was "You don't want to dance?". Her response, in English, was:
"Yes, I want to do it."
I expected a different answer, but I still understood. It's obvious, if I said it in English, my question would've been "Don't you want to dance?".
So my question now is, is there any way in Japanese to distinguish, for example, "You don't want to dance?" and "Don't you want to dance?"
よろしくお願いします！

この場合、単純に"なんで踊らないの"と聞きたい場合でもwhy don'tは誘いになってしまうのでしょうか？！

文脈によりますが、基本的には誘いになるので、「なんで踊らないの」と聞きたい場合は、won'tを使うといいでしょう。

 

[Toritoribe]

Unlike 踊らないの？/踊りたくないの？, 踊らない？ is an invitation.

 

[Tomii515]

IT was a dancing game, and most of her friends tried to game except she didn't yet. So I wanted to be like, "You don't want to dance?". I didn't want to invite her to dance with me, or invite her to dance, but inquire why she didn't want to since, from assumption, she didn't want to (yet).

Maybe I could use 踊りたくないだろうか？. I would think that 踊りたくないんですか／踊りたくないの？ would be asking for an explination like, why they don't want to dance or something...

 

[Glenn]

Personally, I'd say 踊らないの？in that situation.

 

[Toritoribe]

Yeah, that's correct. 踊らないの？ is the most appropriate for the context. While 踊りたくないの？ is the one just asking whether she wants to dance or not, 踊らないの？ implies asking for an explanation.

 

[Rube]

I'll third that