Giving and Receiving Verbs

I’m glad I can help!

Well, yes and no. The short of it is that all of these verbs are transitive.

longer explanation

This chart wasn’t made with transitive/intransitive pairs in mind. However all of these verbs imply a certain level of transitivity. Transitivity in Japanese usually relates to whether or not the takes a direct object, often marked with を, but here can also be marked with も or は. These particles mean different things, but it’s still implied there is an object of the verb. You also have a doer が and a direction に. You can leave either or both of these out sometimes, but they’re still implied to be there. Like if a child sees you have candy and says ください, it’s implied あなたが(わたし)にキャンディをください.

There are 3 levels of transitivity in Japanese
1- the verb takes が only. Like
(ここで)ふじ(さん)()える。

Mt Fuji can be seen (from here).

2- the verb takes が and を
(わたし)がふじ(さん)()る。

I see Mt Fuji.

3- the verb takes が, に, and を just like our giving and receiving verbs here
(わたし)は)テレビがふじ(さん)()せた。

I was shown Mt Fuji by the tv.

I get the feeling that these verbs don’t have a version with a different level of transitivity, but I could be wrong, so hopefully someone will chime in.

There are other verbs that change with social status and they’re semi-frequently used. Typically people complain about them when someone is speaking in keigo, a certain level of politeness. Whenever you enter a store the employees will typically use keigo on you. You can reply on a neutral level though as the customer. For example, there’s several levels of “to go”
まいる (humble)
()く・()きます (neutral)
いらっしゃいます (honorific)
I’m not the best person to ask about these since I typically try to talk neutrally with people unless they’re my boss.

Actually, when you want a faster or more in-depth answer, the short grammar questions thread or the short language questions thread have many helpful people watching them. :slight_smile:

Thank you again! I hope it’s useful.

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