How does 見ませんか translate to “would you like to see?”

みんなさん、こんにちは!

In lesson 3 of Genki I, there is the following line of dialogue:

じゃあ、土曜日に映画を見ませんか。

The translation they gave was:

“Then, would you like to see a movie on Saturday?”

From what I understand, 見ません is the negative of 見ます. So how does adding the か-particle in the above sentence convert it into asking “would you like to see”?

What rules of grammar are at play here? Are there other examples where a か-particle added to a negative yields a somewhat unexpected meaning (well, at least unexpected for a new learner like me)?

ありがとうございます。

6 comments
  1. its literally the same as in english.

    “Don’t you want to see a movie on Saturday?”

    or

    “wouldn’t you like to see a movie on Saturday”

    both are negative phrases but are questions

  2. Not a native English speaker, but doesn’t English have something similar? When you ask your friend “Why don’t we go to the cinema?” It’s not like you ask for a reason or rant about it.

  3. The construction translates directly into English.

    昼食を食べませんか?

    Won’t you have lunch (with me)?

    映画を見ませんか?

    Won’t you see a movie (with me)?

  4. I think the closest natural sounding equivalent in English would be “wouldn’t you like to see that?” Or “why don’t we go and see that?”. It does take some wrapping your brain around. Still catches me out a lot of the time

  5. Genki has a whole little section, probably near around where you are, explaining how a negative conjugation + か becomes a question/invite.

  6. Genki almost always explains stuff like that in the grammar section (after vocabulary). You just needed to down and see subsection 5 which explains that construction’s use

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