If I put,

> 迷惑なことはありませんか？

How does it differ from:

> 迷惑なことはありますか？

Is it like the same thing said a bit different?
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2022-01-31T19:23:55.707
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2022-04-02T05:45:06.370
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question
word-choice
Expressing "Is that the case?"
The difference between

> 迷惑なことはありませんか？

and

> 迷惑なことはありますか？

is the same as, in English, the difference between

> Isn't there something troubling you?

and

> Is there anything troubling you?

In the former sentence, the speaker is assuming that there _is_ something
troubling the listener. The speaker would be surprised if there isn't
something troubling the listener.

For another English example, consider the following conversation:

> A: "You know that guy John? He can be really annoying, sometimes."
>
> B: "Wait, isn't John your good friend?" _(Here, the speaker's assumption is
> that John is Speaker A's good friend. This is why the negative "isn't" is
> used instead of "is".)_
>
> A: "Yeah, but he's still really annoying."

It's the same principle, here as in Japanese: when we're assuming that
something is the case, we use the negative form in the question.

In sum, you should probably go with

> 迷惑なことはありますか？

Otherwise, it would sound a bit presumptuous, almost as if it were common
knowledge. If I were the listener, and you went with the other option, I would
think: "Why are you assuming that there's something bothering me?"

* * *

As an aside, after questions marked with "か", proper form is to use a period
"。" rather than a question mark "？". This is because you can already tell that
you're dealing with a question from the particle "か".
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answer