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I wanted to confirm that I do not have an private lesson tomorrow but I'm not sure what to write. Often, negative questions as I write them seem to come off as a positive question. Example

 5月9日にプライベート・レッソンの予約はありませんでしょうか？

That seems like it's a positive as in

 I have a private lesson reservation, don't I?

Whereas what I want to ask is

 I do **not** have a private lesson tomorrow right?

I end up guessing and wrote

 5月9日プライベート・レッソンを予約されてありませんでしょう。

Basically I just took the か off but something about that doesn't feel right or doesn't feel actually polite.

Note I want to effectively say "I want to confirm there is NO lesson, right?" and not "I want to confirm there IS a lesson, right?"

The difference is important because by asking the positive "There's a lesson right?" it will make people think that I believe there is a lesson and if they forgot they'd better rush to get one ready quickly. Where as that is not my intention. My intention is to confirm there is no lesson.

What is the correct way to politely confirm a negative situation?

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    You probably mean 予約 rather than 要約 right?
    – virmaior
    Commented May 8, 2017 at 12:37
  • Lesson is レッスン. If you see someone using レッソン, they are not a native speaker.
    – broccoli forest
    Commented May 9, 2017 at 0:20

1 Answer 1

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Natural and polite expression is

 5月9日のプライベート・レッスンは[予約]{よやく}されていませんでしょうか？

The last か is required for interrogative sentence.

It doesn't feel right without the か. (especially in case of politely confirm)

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  • And this means "I want to confirm there is NO lesson, right?" and not "I want to confirm there IS a lesson, right?" This difference is important because asking the positive "There's a lesson, right?" will make people think that I believe there is a lesson and if they forgot they'd better get one ready quickly. Where as that is not my intention. My intention is to confirm there is no lesson.
    – user17423
    Commented May 8, 2017 at 15:57
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    Yes I know your intention. To avoid misunderstanding, how about like this? 明日のレッスンは予約していない認識なのですが、間違いないでしょうか？
    – user22038
    Commented May 8, 2017 at 16:16
  • Thanks. Yes I kind of realized I should probably just ask in a different way. I ended up adding the "か” and then adding a clarifying question saying ”カレンダーによる今日はレッソンがないことを確認したいです。”　I guess I'd still like to know what the meaning of the original sentence is though. Is that question just a bad question because it's ambiguous?
    – user17423
    Commented May 8, 2017 at 16:17
  • The original sentence is almost the same meaning. I guess there is no lesson in your calendar, and you'd like to confirm that, right?
    – user22038
    Commented May 8, 2017 at 16:42
  • In case of that the カレンダー is not yours but classroom's one, you can say like this. カレンダー上で今日はレッスンがないことを確認したいです。
    – user22038
    Commented May 8, 2017 at 17:00

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