Little over a month until the JLPT test for those tests not cancelled…
I need to study and figure explaining this will help myself and others.
Giving and receiving in Japanese. First we have to remember that which verb we use will be dependent on the social status of the giver and receiver. We have 3 levels in this case. The upper one is for social betters such as doctors, teachers, and bosses. The middle is for people in the same social level as us, like friends or coworkers. The third is for social lessers, which you can use for people, but depending on the case, it can be very rude. It’s often used with animals.
In my diagram, the upper level 目上 is represented with 上司 (boss), the same level has 私 (you the speaker) and your friend(s) 友達, and the lower level 目下 a 猫 (cat).
The verbs are written out along the arrows. Who takes the が particle (or is the doer) for each verb matches with the color of the verb. For example, for もらう, you, the speaker, take が which is written in gray/pencil while 友達 takes が for same level くれる. The direction of the arrows indicate who gives what to who. This might get confusing with translations, but if you can conceptualize it in just Japanese, I think that will make it much easier to understand. For both いただく and くださる the boss 上司 gives something to me, the speaker.
So how can you use this chart?
You can plug an play to make sentences. We’ll make examples with 魚 as the object being given.
僕が上司に魚を差し上げた。
I gave my boss a fish.
猫が（僕に）魚をくれた。
The cat gave (to) me a fish.
僕が猫に魚をもらった。
I received a fish from the cat.
僕が猫に魚をやった。
I gave the cat a fish.
Using a particular verb form can show humbleness and be polite. That’s why you ask for things with ください and when you receive things (especially edible ones) you humbly receive them with いただきます. It can be rude to say things in other sorts of ways, so it’s probably best to consider where you stand with the other person.
About Word Order
You can play around with the word order so long as the verb is last and the particles correctly attached. However you sort will most likely be grammatical, but can sound weird. Just like you can say, “To me, my cat gave a fish,” in English, changing the word order might sound similarly strange in Japanese. In general the preference seems to be が に を [verb]. Often you can drop the が, especially when it’s describing the speaker.
Thanks again for the nice diagram!
