So, today I came across this “Dare ni agerubeki desu ka”. And me being me, went straight to google and looked up Ageru, which then led to Kureru, and then I got confused.
Can some one explain if I get this right, because it blew my mind. Ageru is to give and Kureru is to receive.
There are many sites on google explaining this, and as usual some get too complicated, and then you have the contradictions.
So, to clarify, if I were to give some thing, it would be Ageru. And to receive, Kureru.
あげる is to give (or do a favor)
くれる is to receive (or receive a favor)
この仕事に、やり直してあげます
I will will redo this work (for you)
くれる sort works like ください in a way
手伝ってくれない?
can you help (me)?
With Japanese, it’s useful to understand POV. The speaker or anyone the speaker emphasizes it at a “lower” position than the third person’s circle. So ageru and kureru both mean give. Ageru is speaker’s circle gives to third person’s circle. Kureru is third person’s circle gives to listener’s circle.
If you look at the words in Japanese, 上げる(ageru) uses UP kanji and 下さる (kudasaru or a more humble version of 呉れるkureru) uses DOWN kanji, suggesting positions when the giving accord (not literal, it’s just a Japanese thing). Also, kudasaru is where you get kudasai (roughly means please do for me).
There’s a third word morau which is “to receive” which is only in the direction of the speaker’s circle. So yeah, two words for give and one word for receive. Wait till you get to keigo where there’s a number of verbs with two versions depending if you’re speaking humbly about your circle or horrifically about another’s circle.
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Slight correction required. Both あげる and くれる mean “to give”, just depend on the POV. もらう means “to receive”. くれる is the casual form of the honorific くださる which is conjugated くださいます (honorifics have slightly different conjugation) which the masu stem is ください。
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So, in short, Ageru is for me to give to you, and Kureru is for you to give to me.
Looking at Kudasaru, I am thinking is this where the word Kudasai comes from, as in Biru Kudasai.
Yep. Though it’s biiru for beer as biru is building, unless you are asking for a building in your example.
A building would be nice. But yeah, it was supposed to be Beer.
Morau, this is for receiving, and unlike giving, there is just the one word. Ageru and kureru Vs Morau.
I have a feeling this one is going to be a pain.