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Difference between 遅いんじゃない and お遅くないんだ? Difference between - Printable Version

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Difference between 遅いんじゃない and お遅くないんだ? Difference between - permafrost - 2012-03-07

遅いんじゃない?
お遅くないんだ?

Just wondering what the difference between the two is. Do both of them translate to "Are you not late?"

Thank you!


Difference between 遅いんじゃない and お遅くないんだ? Difference between - SomeCallMeChris - 2012-03-07

Yes, but with different tones of voice?
It might be better to say,
遅いんじゃない is "You're late, aren't you." (Although I suppose it's possible that in some context this actually means 'Not late', but I find that context hard to imagine.)
遅くないんだ is "You're not late." - This one's unambiguous.

(Of course, the subject could be 'I' or 'John' or whatever depending on context, 'you' is not explicit or even most likely.)

Oh, I dropped the question marks too... the second can't be a question ending in だ like that. The first can be either questioning or not - it's essentially a rhetorical question.