Giving verbs – kureru, ageru
Hi and welcome to Japanese with Jenny! In this post I’ll be talking about the 3 Japanese giving verbs — kureru, ageru, morau — and how to use them alone and with conjugated -te form verbs.
Kureru
This means that someone else gives something to you (or someone in your in-group) for your benefit. If the giver is of a higher rank or status (ex. your teacher or boss), then you use kudasaru instead. The sentence pattern is as follows:
Giver + ga/wa + receiver + ni + object given + o + kureru/kudasaru.
When /receiver + ni/ is omitted, it implies that the speaker is the receiver. So for example:
Takashi-kun ga Sayuri-chan ni hana o kureru. || Takashi gave Sayuri flowers (for her benefit).
Sensei ga hon o kudasaru. || The teacher gave me a book (for my benefit).
Ageru
This means that you (or someone in your in-group) gives something to someone else for their benefit. If the receiver is of a higher rank or status (ex. your teacher or boss), then you use sashiageru1 instead. If the receiver is of the same or lower rank (ex. your younger brother a pet), you use yaru. The sentence pattern is as follows:
Giver + ga/wa + receiver + ni + object given + o + ageru/sashiageru/yaru.
When /giver + ga/ is omitted, it implies that the speaker is the giver. So for example:
Ueki ni mizu o yaru. || I water the plants. (lit. I give the plants water for their benefits.)
Sensei ni shukudai o sashiageru. || I give the teacher my homework (for his benefits).
Te-form verbs + kureru/ageru
Instead of simply giving an object, now an action is given. In other words, the verb in te-form is performed for someone (and their benefit), depending on whether ageru or kureru is used. An object can still be involved, but the focus is now on the action performed (te-form verb). The sentence pattern are as follows:
Giver + ga/wa + receiver + ni + object given + o + te-form verb + kureru/kudasaru.
Giver + ga/wa + receiver + ni + object given + o + te-form ver + ageru/yaru.
Again, when /giver + ga/ is omitted for ageru or when /receiver + ni/ is omitted for kureru, it implies that the speaker is the giver/receiver. So for example:
Takashi-kun ga hana o katte kureru. || Takashi buys me flowers (for my benefit).
Sayuri-chan ni tizu o kaite ageru. || I draw a map for Sayuri (and her benefit).
- Generally not used with the te-form verb. ↩
Celsie says:
Don’t forget about morau! The verb of receiving can easily be confused for kureru.
I found your site searching for yaru, how random is that?
Jenny says:
Haha, yes. I’m going to put up my notes for that real soon, probably before my Japanese exam
Brigitte Ohno says:
Thanks for very clear presentation. i wouls love more exemples.
your advice to improve listening comp in Japanese