Could you explain to me the meaning and grammar of this sentence? 今回もそうなるのではないかと心配している

Question

The sentence is:

今回もそうなるのではないかと心配している。

I know the words but I don't quite get the meaning.

This is the whole writing:

今日、兄が新しい自転車を買った。問題は、住んでいるところが少し治安が悪くて、盗まれるかもしれないことだ。前にも、兄は自転車を買ったことあるが、残念ながら盗まれたので、今回もそうなるのではないかと心配している。

I don't quite get what is "のではない" doing in there. 今回も means this time, too. そうなる means something like become so or be the case and 心配 is to worry. I think it'd be logical to think that it means something like "I'm worried it will happen again this time" but that is just my guess based on the context.

Answer 1

Your attempt at translation is pretty much spot on in terms of meaning; I think all you're missing is an understanding of のではない, which is more commonly seen as んじゃない and is used to make statements into rhetorical/tag questions confirming something the speaker believes is likely true. You can read about this here and here, and in many questions on this site including this one and this one. The important thing to realize is that んじゃないか is just a contraction of のではないか. In this case it's also inside a subordinate clause describing what the speaker is worried about, making it slightly less direct.

Given that, the sentence works out something like this:

今回もそうなるのではないか

Won't it turn out the same way this time?

今回もそうなるのではないかと心配している

I'm worried that it will turn out the same way this time.

If you have trouble with the idea that won't it turn out the same way? stops being a question of any kind in the full English translation, you can also think of an extremely direct translation along the lines of :

I'm worried thinking "won't it turn out the same way this time?"