Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 4: 12/18

～ておくTo do something in advance

Structure

Verb［て］+ おく
Verb［て］ +とく

Details

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  • Rare Kanji

    置く

About ておく

When the conjunction particle て is followed by the う-Verb 置(お)く in Japanese, it regularly has the meaning of 'to do (A) in advance'. 置(お)く as a verb itself means 'to place something' (down), but also has the nuance 'to leave something alone', or to 'drop something' (like a topic). In this way, ておく can be thought of as meaning 'to do (A) and leave it (until later)'.

When using ておく, the 'future event' that the (A) action is being done for may be something that is coming soon, or may be something that the speaker doesn't want to ever come. Due to this, ておく is also regularly used when the speaker is doing something specifically to prevent another thing from happening.

Caution

ておく is sometimes contracted to とく (or どく in verbs where て would usually be said as で). Although this is not excessively common in conversation, it is very common in drama, manga, and similar media.

  • 机(つくえ)の上(うえ)に明日(あした)の旅行(りょこう)に必要(ひつよう)なパスポートを置(お)い とくね。
    I am going to leave the passport we need for the trip tomorrow on top of the table in advance. (So that I won't forget it later)
  • 水筒(すいとう)に水(みず)を汲(く)んどくね。
    I am going to fill this thermos up with water in advance. (So that it is available when I am thirsty)

Related

Examples

--:--

    ここにリモコンを置(お)いておくね。

    I will put the remote here (in advance for future use).

    ちょっと調(しら)べておきます。

    I will do a little research in advance.

    帰(かえ)ってくるのが遅(おそ)くなるから、ご飯(はん)を作(つく)っておいた。

    I won't get home until late, so I made food in advance.

    明日(あした)のパーティーのためにジュースを買(か)っておきました。

    I bought juice (in advance) for the party tomorrow.

    今夜(こんや)明日(あした)のお弁当(べんとう)を作(つく)っておいてくれますか？

    Will you make tomorrow's bento (in advance) for me tonight?

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      ておく – Grammar Discussion

      Most Recent Replies (37 in total)

      • Pushindawood

        Pushindawood

        to do something in advance

        Structure

        • Verb[ て ] + おく

        View on Bunpro

      • allinlabs

        allinlabs

        Misa from JapaneseAmmo just made a video about ておく. It would be good if you added it to the grammar point

      • mrnoone

        mrnoone

        Hey and welcome on community forums

        I have added it to the “readings” section!

        Cheers,

        PS
        Cool avatar, what does it depict?

      • Pep95

        Pep95

        Would I be able to write ておく as て置く when referring to this grammar point in a sentence? Or should I simply keep writing hiragana when referring to these types of grammar points?

      • mrnoone

        mrnoone

        Hey

        You should keep writing them in hiragana, otherwise, it can cause confusion.

        Cheers,

      • eran

        eran

        来週らいしゅうまでに漢字かんじを30字じ おぼえておかなく てはいけない
        why is the translation " By next week, I have to memorize 30 kanji in advance ."?
        according to this grammer point: https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/67 it should mean I DON’T have to right?

      • mrnoone

        mrnoone

        Hey

        You have negative て form of おく used here 覚えておかなくてはいけない, which together with はいけない form double negative, meaning must must なくてはいけない grammar point.

        It sounds complicated, but basically なくてはいけない means “must” while てはいけない means “must not”. It is quite a long phrase, so it might be confusing, but you will get used to it.

        Negative て form is really easy to make：
        おく→negative form->おかない-replace い with く→おかなく-add て->おかなくて (done)

        I hope it helps,
        Cheers!

        PS
        てはいけない means “must not”, in other words, something is prohibited, not allowed. It is important to not do that.
        ここで駐車してはいけない。
        You must not park here. Do not park here. Parking here is prohibited.

        While “don’t have to” means there is no ...

      • Ambo100

        Ambo100

        Could とく/どく be added as synonyms or included in the structure as they are casual contractions of ておく? (Perhaps used in examples as well)

        This also would be helpful for people trying to find what とく means when they don’t already know it’s a contraction.

      • mrnoone

        mrnoone

        Thanks!

        I actually thought we had those on the site already

      • siditious

        siditious

        This double negative is really unintuitive, this can’t be common usage.

      • matt_in_mito

        matt_in_mito

        Hi and welcome.
        This double negative is the Japanese way of saying that someone has to do something. There are some different ways of doing it, for example;
        ～ないといけない
        ～なければいけない
        ～なければならない
        but they’re all double negatives and they’re all used all the time in everyday speech. It comes very naturally after a while.

      • kelth

        kelth

        Hello, just to see if i am understanding correctly,
        覚えておか なく てはいけない
        is saying you must not not memorize in advance?

      • matt_in_mito

        matt_in_mito

        No, it’s a double negative so it means you must remember in advance.

      • kelth

        kelth

        That would be how the double negative ultimately ends up in the English version I wrote: “you must not not memorize in advance.”
        I believe the Japanese is saying you are not allowed to not memorize it in advanced, not that you must memorize it in advanced. It ultimately means the same thing, but the logic is not the same.

      • nekoyama

        nekoyama

        This is a fairly normal way to say this though that’s used when one would say “must” in English. So it’s better to think of it as translating to “must” because Japanese speakers do not perceive this as a particularly strange construction in the way a literal translation to English is perceived by speakers of English.

      • siditious

        siditious

        So why not use the more traditional forms
        覚えておかなければいけない
        or 覚えておかなければいません
        both mean the same thing, the expectation of the prompt is very ambiguous as is the translation of the solution.

      • mrnoone

        mrnoone

        Hey

        All the forms are correct and used, so it is good to learn all of them .
        What is more なければいけない is introduced in N4 lesson 8, and ておく appears in lesson 7 so we have used なくてはいけない (from lesson 1) instead, since we are building on previously learned grammar constructions.

        I hope it helps,
        Cheers

      • pasi

        pasi

        Hi, one of the examples has ~おこう. Which grammar point is this from? Is this something I haven’t run into yet because I’ve chosen Tae Kim path?

      • FredKore

        FredKore

        @pasi Check these out:
        Volitional form
        https://www.bunpro.jp/grammar_points/121
        https://www.bunpro.jp/grammar_points/70

      • pasi

        pasi

        Thanks, so it’s casual volitional. I guess my “Kim Tae path diagnosis” was correct.

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