Structure
Verb[て]+ いただけませんか
Verb[て]+ もらえませんか
Politeness Levels
Details
Polite
About ていただけませんか
ていただけませんか is the humble speech form of てもらえませんか, which itself is the negative potential form of てもらう 'to have (A) done by someone else'.
This structure is a combination of て (the conjunction particle), the う-Verb いただく 'to be topped with', the polite-negative auxiliary verb ません, and the question particle, か.
Generally, it is translated in a similar way as てもらえませんか 'won't you (A)', or 'could you please (A)'.
This construction and いただく itself can regularly be seen as 頂く, its kanji form. Due to this kanji literally meaning 'to be topped with', it is just acknowledging that the person that is doing the action for you (or someone in your group), is doing so from 'above' (sounds more respectful).
Here we can see how the 'to be topped/capped with' meaning is used in a standard sentence.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Related
Examples
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犬を散歩していただけませんか。
Could you please walk the dog?
夜9時までに帰っていただけませんか。
Could you please return home by nine o'clock? (go home)
もしよかったら、明日もしていただけませんか。
If it is ok, could you please do it for me tomorrow too?
駅まで送っていただけませんか。
Could you please take me to the station?
3時ぐらいに来ていただけませんか。
Could you please come around three o'clock?
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Online
Break down of ていただけませんか
Kanshudo
Examples of humble form
Tae Kim
Offline
Genki II 1st Edition
Page 76
Genki II 2nd Edition
Page 102
Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide
Page 225
みんなの日本語 II
Page 12 [CH 26]
みんなの日本語 II
Page 144 [CH 48]
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ていただけませんか – Grammar Discussion
Most Recent Replies (13 in total)

fdlbt
I’ve just recently reached these first few Sonkeigo and Kenjougo grammar points so maybe this will all make more sense later on, but at the moment I’m pretty confused with how this item is about requesting a favor of someone else, but Kenjougo is described (in another grammar point somewhere) as being all about the speaker’s own actions. Sorry if this question is bit outside the scope of this particular grammar point, but if there’s an easy way to square this circle, I’d love to hear it.

casual
Both いただく and もらう mean “to receive”. In this way, these are actions of the speaker, with いただく being the humble version where the speaker receives something from a higher up. This perspective makes it consistent with Kenjougo being about humbling the speaker’s actions down.
すみませんが、後ろに乗っていただけませんか。
Excuse me, would it not be (negative form) possible (potential form) that I could humbly get (speaker’s action) you to sit in the back (listener’s action is the contents of what the speaker receives)?It’s quite awkward to spell out “humbly receive a favor” in English, so more natural translations make it sound like it’s just a listener’s action.
Te-form is where the transition from the listener’s action 乗る to the speaker’s action いただく happens.

fdlbt
I see, it makes complete sense now. Thank you!
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