What I will introduce today is probably the most confusing part for most Japanese learner. It is called “授受(じゅじゅ)表現” or “give and receive”. As we all know, “あげる” means give, “もらう” means receive and “くれる” means give. In contrast, the conversion of “〜てあげる、〜てもらう、〜てくれる” is the form of giving and receive of action, and this is called “行為(action)のやりもらい”.
To understand how to use the structure correctly, you should always bear in mind the following.
– the direction of the action which can be interpreted by “あげる、もらう、くれる”
– who is the subject of the sentence
– who is the speaker
Let’s have a look at the following examples.
1. 佐藤さんが日本語を教えた。
2. 佐藤さんが日本語を教えてくれた。
1 is just simply showing the fact that “Sato taught Japanese”. In contrast, 2 is saying that “Sato taught Japanese to me”. Why can we know that?
– Sato is the subject of the sentence, and there is くれる in the end of the sentence, which means “Sato is giving teaching of Japanese”.
– The speaker is “I”, therefore, we can conclude that “Sato gave teaching of Japanese to me”.
As I always say, practice is very important. Thus, I will show you more examples next time to help you to get more familiar with the structure. See you next time.