Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 7: 3/18

~てもらうTo get someone to do, To have someone do

Structure

Verb[て]+ もらう

Politeness Levels

Details

  • Polite

  • 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, will mark the person that 'did something' for the subject, while (or ) 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)'.

てもらう is also regularly used when receiving a service from someone, as てくれる would imply that the action was a favor.



Examples

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  • (わたし)(はは)宿題(しゅくだい)してもらった

    I had my mom do my homework (for me).

  • クリスマスに(いぬ)()ってもらうかもしれない

    I might have (someone) buy me a dog for Christmas.

  • ((だれ))この仕事(しごと)手伝(てつだ)ってもらう

    I will get someone to help with this work.

  • ユカ(だれ)手伝(てつだ)ってもらったかもしれない

    Yuka might have gotten someone to help her.

  • まず掃除(そうじ)してもらう(おも)

    First I think I will have you clean (for me).

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てもらう – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (28 in total)

  • torpedotaiyaki

    torpedotaiyaki

    <...
  • Fuga

    Fuga

    Hey @torpedotaiyaki !

    持っていっていただけます does not work here since this is the conjugation of the intransitive verb いただける. This means that 持っていっていただけます has the nuance of ‘would be able to take’ and unlike 持っていっていただいて, it does not have the nuance of ‘Have them take…(for me)’.

    Due to the difference in nuance, using 持っていっていただけます would make the Japanese sentence as unnatural as saying ‘It looks like it might rain, so they will be able to take an umbrella’ in English.

    I hope this helps!

  • The111

    The111

    This lesson links to the politeness levels list right in the structure section. But… the construct itself is not even in that list!

    Ironically I got a review question wrong because I tried to answer with てもらえる… which IS in the list (but I’m not sure if a lesson for that point even exists… this is the closest option I think).

    tl;dr

    • てもらえる is in the list but does not have a dedicated lesson
    • てもらう has a dedicated lesson (which links to the list) but is not in the list

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