あの馬に、ニンジンやリンゴをあげてもいいですか?— Can you read this sentence and understand what it means?

hehe cool, I understood parts of it. I knew “that horse” and “Apple” and “carrot”, but i thought ageru means to raise.
What i completely missed is where that し in ______してもいいですか? came from.

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makes sense, thank you!

I think they actually use the same kanji for both meanings, here’s the jisho.org entry for 上げる. I think it sorta makes sense that they’re related, you can kinda think of yourself lifting something up to hand it to someone, you know?

して is the te-form of する. te-form + もいいですか is how you ask if it’s okay to do something, so in the main sentence the te-form of あげる is あげて + もいいですか, but in the break down I’m guessing they just used する since it’s a generic verb and is used a lot.

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oh thanks a lot. I had no idea. I’m still pretty at the beginning with my grammar :expressionless:

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So if you’re a beginner at grammar, here’s a mini lesson about “to give” in Japanese: there are two basic verbs for giving depending upon who’s giving and who’s receiving. あげる is used if I give to someone else or if someone gives to someone. くれる is used if someone gives to me. (馬さんは人参をくれた。 – Mr Horse gave me a carrot.)

Often you’ll notice that Japanese sentences don’t use わたし (I) as a subject or object, but because verbs can indicate direction, the subject is obvious. In the horse sentence for example you’ll guess that I’m the one who wants to feed the horse because no one else is mentioned. If a sentence uses くれる then you know I’m not the subject because I can’t くれる. Only other people can do that to me.

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Well, glad to see I’m not too far off the mark. I got the supposed kanji right, but I haven’t learned that meaning yet.

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My guess: “Is it okay to give that horse things like carrots and apples?”

reads the correct answer

:astonished:

brags incessantly to the flatmates for about ten minutes

No, seriously, I am so happy right now :blush: The しても part was pure guesswork and I was not aware that あげる could be used in this context, but I kinda put two and two together and passed! I don’t think I would be able to decipher this, say, a month ago.

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I have a question for @TofuguKanaeさん or anyone else who could help: long ago I learned that you would use やる to give something to an animal or a low status person. But in this sentence we use あげる. When would it be appropriate to use やる?

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Good question! Yeah, as you said, やる can also be used as a verb meaning “to give”, but mainly used to animals or a low-status person. Also, it sounds casual and pretty manly.

In the sentence, we could say あの馬に、ニンジンやリンゴをやってもいい(ですか)?, but this would sound manly and less polite.

As a female, I would use やる only for 餌 for animals or 水 for plants.

ex)
( Asking family, etc) Have you already fed Hachi? — ハチにもう餌やった?

ex)
I gotta water my plants. — 植木に水やらなきゃ。

And maaaybe, for pocket money for kids like my niece?

ex)
Should I give Fu-chan otoshidama (money for New Year celebration) since she’s turning three this year? — ふうちゃんも、もう今年で3歳だし、そろそろお年玉やらなきゃダメかなあ?

Those three things I listed are almost idiomatic, no matter if you want to sound masculine or not, you could use やる. However, remember — you can always use あげる for these, too! And it’s a safer way to do it (to avoid situations you may sound kind of rude).

More common usage of やる, though it’s not exactly “to give,” is してやる (to do something for someone) instead of してあげる. Like, 朝食作ってやるよ is I can make a breakfast for you. The nuance still remains manly and casual, but I feel like I run into this more often than やる used in “to give” situations.

Hope it helped👌!

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手伝ってくれてありがとうございました。

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