I've been watching a few videos and reading up on how the の particle is used
in explanations (along with だ/です for statements) and I've come across [this
video](http://youtu.be/obOAAmHHHVI).

It explains how you can use の for seeking explanations at the end of a
question and how you can conjugate the の particle as a noun however I don't
understand the nuance in the following questions:

If someone asks this question to me

> 学生じゃないの？

Or

> 学生なんじゃない?

My understanding is that the first one means "You're not a student?" But the
latter I'm unsure about because I think it means the same thing as the first
sentence.

As it stands , If I am not a student then I would reply

> 学生じゃないんだ

to **both** questions.

I asked my Japanese friend what is the difference and she told me that the
first one is a negative question and the second one means "(S/he) is maybe a
student." and that it's more of "guessing"

I'm quite confused by this given that the negative conjugation is used in the
second sentence.

My question is what is the difference between those two sentences and what is
the actual meaning?
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2015-07-20T22:02:02.587
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question
particle-の
Explanatory の particle in question
「 **じゃない** 」 is much more complex than many Japanese-learners seem to think or
even have actually been taught. That is because it is used **_both_**
affirmatively and negatively (whereas some learners seem to think it is
_automatically_ negative because of the 「ない」).

For instance, if a native speaker said:

> 「うまいじゃない、このピザ！」 (「うまい」 means "tasty".)

that would mean " ** _This pizza is yummy_**!" 100% of the time. It just could
never mean "This pizza is **not** yummy." even if you wanted it to. Why not?
Because the negative form of 「うまい」 is 「うまくない」 and **_not_** 「うまいじゃない」.

Though brief, What I said above is the absolute prerequisite for any further
discussion regarding 「じゃない」.

Let us look at your examples now.

> 「学生{がくせい}じゃないの？」

This can mean two very different things depending on the **_intonation_**
used.

  1. "(Really?) You're not a student? (I thought you were.)" ← Negative 「じゃない」

  2. "(Someone) is a student, right? (I am pretty sure s/he is.)" ← Affirmative 「じゃない」

> 「学生なんじゃない？」

can only mean one thing: Same as #2 above. It is the affirmative 「じゃない」.

One would need to have much experience speaking to native speakers to be
comfortable with different usages of 「じゃない」 because a large part of it has to
do with **intonation**. Part of it is just plain grammar so that one needs no
speaking skills to tell the two types of 「じゃない」 apart.
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answer