Structure
Verb[て]+ もらう
Politeness Levels
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Polite
使用域
敬語
Rare Kanji
貰う
About てもらう
Being slightly more direct than てくれる, てもらう removes the meaning of 'to bestow' (to the speaker), and focuses on the meaning of 'to receive' (from the giver). With てもらう, に will mark the person that 'did something' for the subject, while が (or は) will highlight the receiver themselves.
In English, this grammar structure is regularly translated as 'to have (someone) do (A) for you', or 'to get (someone) to do (A) for you'. Literally, it means 'to receive the action of (A)'.
In English, this grammar structure is regularly translated as 'to have (someone) do (A) for you', or 'to get (someone) to do (A) for you'. Literally, it means 'to receive the action of (A)'.
- 日本語が話せないから友達に行き方を聞いてもらう。Because I can't speak Japanese, I'm going to have my friend ask for directions on my behalf.
- 私は虫が嫌いなので妻に虫を捕ってもらう。Since I hate bugs, I get my wife to catch them (for me).
- 昨日は朝から頭が痛かったから医者に見てもらった。Because my head hurt since the morning yesterday, I had a doctor look at it.
- 朝から頭が痛かったから病院に行って、医者に見てくれた。Because I had a headache since this morning, I went to the doctor and he checked it out for me.
Synonyms
Examples
私は母に宿題をしてもらった。
I had my mom do my homework.
クリスマスに犬を買ってもらうかもしれない。
I might have (someone) buy me a dog for Christmas.
この仕事を手伝ってもらう。
I will get someone to help with this work.
ユカは誰かに手伝ってもらったかもしれない。
Yuka might have gotten someone to help her.
雑誌にあった漢字の読み方が分からなかったので、ネイティブに読んでもらう。
I did not understand the reading of a kanji in a magazine, so I will have a native read it for me.
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How to use (〜して)あげる + くれる + もらう
MaggieSensei
When to use てもらう
Tae Kim
てあげる vs てくれる vs てもらう
Japanese Ammo 🎦
Offline
Genki II 1st Edition
Page 34 & 74
みんなの日本語 I
Page 152 [CH 24]
Tobira
Page 72
Genki II 2nd Edition
Page 56 & 100
Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide
Page 174
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てもらう – Grammar Discussion
Most Recent Replies (23 in total)
Yumari-1
If I posted in these grammar threads every time I have a question I would already have over ~100 posts likely They seem desolate unfortunately, with questions left unanswered or people coming years later and expressing the same difficulties.
Also staff seems to be tired with my bug reports as they were getting responses initially and things were getting changed if needbe, but now they’re all left alone And I don’t think I have a lot of them, only 5-6 actually over 2-3 months…
But anyway, here I also have trouble parsing 「雨が降りそうだから、傘を持って行ってもらってね。」
First of all, I don’t see a way to magically infer その人たちに or such without any further context. Google even sees this as “It looks like it’s going to rain, so please bring an umbrella with y...nekoyama
The speaker (A) asks someone else (B) to もらう the action of 傘を持って行く (to bring/take an umbrella) from some unknown party that’s definitely not B, and very likely not A. Therefore there should be someone else who is not mentioned explicitly and who is supposed to take an umbrella with them. (Or multiple people, of course.)
Yumari-1
Thanks a bunch for this explanation, it actually cleared up lots of confusion for me. The stacking of constructs to basically from
The speaker (A) asks someone else (B) to もらう the action of 傘を持って行く
can be kind of daunting, but it helps to dig into these kinds of sentences for later stages of learni...
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