Using kureru, morau and ageru in a more complicated Japanese sentence

When you want to explain to someone that you received or given something in Japanese, the sentences starts to get a little more complicating. There is a difference in usage between kureru and morau. Let’s take a look at some examples

Using kureru くれる

この　テレビ　は　いつ　かった　の？ - When did you bought this tv?

kono terebi wa itsu katta no?

いいえ、ともだち　が くれた - Nope, a friend gave it to me

iie, tomodachi ga kureta

Using morau もらう

この　テレビ　は　いつ　かった　の？- When did you bought this tv?

kono terebi wa itsu katta no?

いいえ、ともだち　に もらった or いいえ、ともだち　から もらった　- Nope, I received it from a friend

iie, tomodachi ni moratta or iie, tomodachi kara moratta

Words to learn

かう、買う - to buy

ともだち、友達 - friend

テレビ - television, tv

いいえ - no, nope

から - from

From the examples above, we can tell that when you want to use kureru, you need to add が before it. So for the sentence ともだち　が くれた, it simply means “the friend did the giving and I received it”. Most people will think, “Why is it me that I am receiving it?” That is because the verb kureru　くれる, always have the arrow pointing towards you, the speaker. Just remember this, whenever you want to use kureruくれる in your sentence, the receiving arrow will always point back to you. Refer to the previous post for more explanation

And for the second example, where morau もらう was used. The ni に particle and the kara から can be use to tell where the arrow comes from. In this case, the arrow comes from the friend,　ともだち.　But the ni に particle and the karaから should not be use together with the kureru　くれる verb. It just does not fit. Just part of the rules.  Morau　もらう may not always necessary be pointing back to you. You may even use morau もらう this way

かれ　は　せんせい　から or に パソコン　を　もらった -　He received a computer from teacher

kare wa sensei kara or ni pasokon wo moratta

We can see that morau　もらう is pointing from the teacher to the him, the boy. If we break the sentence down, and think back of the basic rules that I taught earlier in my earlier posts, you can see that its pretty easy to understand this.

かれ　は　is the main component in the sentence, so it should be express out first and mark it as the main topic using the は particle.

Next, just now we learned earlier, that kara　から means from, so せんせい　から or に means from teacher

And finally, パソコン　を　もらった means “to receive computer” the を　particle is use to show an action acting on an object. We learned this earlier in another post on understanding Japanese particles part 2.

Conclusion

So when you piece them altogether, you get to understand how this complicated sentence is made. And also dont forget that Japanese sentences are post-position. So everything goes backwards. A detailed explantion of Japanese sentences was posted some time back. Each broken parts are post-position and assembling each smaller structure back should be in post-position as well.　Clearer example below

->English is pre-position

He received a computer from teacher

<- Japanese is post-position so lets form the English sentence above backwards

“He” + “teacher” + “from” + “computer” + “received”

Now we can change each word into Japanese and fit into the Japanese structure, so you get:

kare wa sensei kara or ni pasokon wo moratta

Almost the whole sentence makes sense in Japanese!

Using ageru　あげる

この　パソコン　を　はなちゃん　に かって　あげた - I bought this computer for Hana chan

kono pasokon wo Hana chan ni katte ageta

In the sentence above, Hana chan can be a little girl who is younger than me by about 10 years. She can be my younger sister, or just a little kid that I got to know from somewhere, or could even be your friend’s daughter. In any case, as long as the person that you are refering to is younger than you, your mother or father, or a good friend who is about the same age as you, you can use ageru freely. Close relationship with another person allows you to use ageru あげる freely

But if the person you are talking to is much eldar than you, someone who is your boss, or someone who is your senpai 先輩(someone who works in the company longer than you), or someone you don’t really know, you should never use ageru あげる in front of them. Refer to the previous post for more explanation

Japanese language can be troublesome, don’t you all think so?