Miyano-sama / Japanese Language / Giving and Receiving

If you are studying Japanese, you might have come across many situations in which you can't tell what is the subject and what is the object. This happens because Japanese grammar does not require to state the subject or the object to be stated explicitly in the sentence. To be more specific, the real problem is that Japanese language does not have real pronouns like English.

Pronouns are words that refers to name of people or things that was already mentioned in the speech. Example of pronouns in English are I, we, he, she, it, they, you, her, him, est. I would not say that Japanese language does not have pronouns at all but the thing is there are many times when these pronouns are understood and become unnecessary to say explicitly.

One common reason to omit the pronouns is when you use "Giving and Receiving" verbs.

What are giving and receiving verbs?

Giving and receiving verbs are verbs that have the literal meaning "Give" and "Receive". Japanese people like to use them to show their appreciation or gratitude for a favor done to them. See the following Table:

Different level of politeness may explains why there are two versions of the verb "to receive", but why does the verb "to give" has four different versions? To answer this, first notice that we have two verbs that is used in normal speech (あげる and くれる), and two verbs which are used in polite speech (さしあげる and くださる). The verbs in the first column can be used to describe giving from any person to somebody else as long as that "somebody else" is not the speaker. On the other hand, the verbs on the second column can be used to describe giving from any person to the speaker himself (or to the speaker group). In other words (くれる and くださる) means "To give to me or to us". Let's give out some examples

1. 蘭はコナンにチョコレートをあげた
Ran gave Conan chocolates

2. 園子は真さんにプレゼントをもらいました
Sonoko got a present from Makoto-san

3.阿笠博士はボクに５００円玉をくれた
Dr Agasa gave me 500 yen.

Examples 1 and 2 should be very clear for you. However You should notice that the speaker in example (3) is Conan. (See File 594 in the manga) When you want to say that someone give you something, you must use the verb くれる. The following sentence is wrong:

蘭は私にケーキをあげる

The above line is supposed to mean "Ran gives me cake". It is wrong because あげる should not be used when the receiver is the speaker himself. To correct the above example, use くれる instead.

Now that you know that くれる is only used when the receiver is the speaker, you should understand why it is not necessary to say the receiver. So in example 3, it is alright not to say (ボクに), because くれた by itself implies that the speaker is the receiver.

Example 3 Again:
3.阿笠博士はボクに５００円玉をくれた
Dr Agasa gave me 500 yen.

Make sure that you understood why omitting the pronoun "boku" from example three does not confuse the listener at all about who the receiver is.

Moreover, notice that omitting the receiver from example 1 is different thing. In this case the listener should understand that the receiver is somebody mentioned in the context that is not the speaker himself.

Example 1 again:
蘭はチョコレートをあげた
Ran gave (him/her/them) chocolates

One final note: Just don't mix up between giving verbs and receiving verbs as both require a giver and receiver. The difference is that the subject is the giver in case of giving verbs, while it becomes the receiver with receiving verbs.

Showing gratitude for doing favor

The giving & receiving verbs can be used to show the gratitude of someone for a favor done to him from someone else. This is done by using the te-form of the verb indicating the service done for the receiver (or from the giver) + もらう (or あげる). Let's see the following examples

1.蘭はコナンに漫画を買ってあげる
Ran buys a manga for Conan.

2.コナンは灰原に解毒剤を作ってもらいました
Haibara made an antidote for Conan

3.蘭はゴロちゃんを預かってくれた
Ran took care of Goro-chan for me

In example 1, the verb used is あげる which is giving verb. This means that the subject is the one who is doing favor.

In example 2, the verb used is もらう which is receiving verb. This means that the subject is the one who is receiving favor. Notice that in example 2, "Conan" functions as a subject of the sentence because he "receives" the service of "making" antidote from Haibara. Do not be confused from the English translation which makes Haibara be the subject and Conan be indirect object.

In example 3, the verb used is くれる which is also a giving verb. The receiver in this sentence was not mentioned, but that's not big problem, because we already know that くれる’s receiver can only be the speaker.

Also make sure that you notice that the above examples give the implication that the "receiver" of the favor feels happy or grateful for the one who does it for him.

More fun about giving and receiving verbs

Since the giving and receiving verbs are used to show gratitude for others, you may think that it is always good idea to use them, to show politeness for others. However, this is not always the case. Consider the following example:

私はあなたの部屋を掃除してあげる
I will clean your room for you

Japanese listeners may understand from the above sentence that you are offering your help in cleaning their room because you feel that they are pathetic. The reason is because あげる gives the nuance that the doer is superior to the receiver. In fact, "te-ageru" form is used to show this kind of relationship. A more accurate translation for the above sentence is something like "I will give you a favor of cleaning the room".

Let's explore a good way of using あげる. Consider what Kobayashi-sensei told Sakamoto-kun when she found out that he has no pencils (Episode 460)

先生の鉛筆貸してあげるから
I will lend you my pencil

Noticed that Kobayashi-sensei has used te-form of 貸す(to lend) + あげる.You will notice this style quite a lot when adults do a favor for children. In fact Ran also uses this style when she wants to do a favor for Conan.

Now let's see how to use もらう in a bad way, Consider what the client said in the trailer of Detective Conan Movie#10

この爆弾と同じものを君たちの友達につけさせてもらったよ
I've attached such bombs to your friends as well

In this case, the client used what is called "causative form" of the verb つける (to attach). The meaning of this form of the verb is "I make (someone) attach". 私はばくだんを君につけさせた literally means "I made you attach a bomb on yourself. The client used the causative form in combination with the receiving verb もらう. Doing so gives the nuance that he is grateful for "Ran and others" for doing what he has made them do.

From grammatical point of view, the receiver are (Ran and others). The giver is the client because he is the one who gives them the service of "making them attaching bombs on themselves". Since the benefit of this service is for the client (the giver), this style of speaking is Sarcastic.