Some Useful Japanese Explained

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Well since I am here studying Japanese by myself, of course with the help of fellow Japanese around me, I thought that it would be really nice to clear up some foul air that have been hindering me from the normal progression. So if you too are studying, have studied and am planning to study Japanese, these might be useful...

Part 1

彼女が(私に)食べてくれた。

She ate for me.

In the above example, 彼女 is the main subject which have to be followed by the particle が which places further emphasize on the subject. The 私に in brackets means for me which is explictly understood if it is omited from the sentence because the next verb that follows is 食べてくれた which くれた at the end of the verb means that you received the action without asking for it. The other party did it willingly under no coercion from you.

If you requested an action to be done for you and it was done, then the sentence would be,

彼女が(私に)食べてもらった。

She ate for me. (because I asked her to)

Although the English explaination is the same in both examples, in Japanese, もらった at the end of a verb means an action received because you requested for it while くれた at the end of a verb means an action received but you didn't request for it.

Of course you could be more specific about what was being ate where you could insert a noun (a food in this case), followed by the particle を.

彼女が(私に)馬刺しを食べてくれた。

She ate horse sashimi for me.

or

彼女が(私に)馬刺しを食べてもらった。

She ate horse sashimi for me. (because I asked her to)

The opposite of this example would be you, the subject doing an action for someone else. In this case, it will be

私が彼女に食べてあげた。

I ate for her.

Only the roles of the 2 subjects are reversed in this case where the particles remain the same. くれた or もらった at the end of the previous examples are replaced with あげた which simply means 'give' or an action done by yourself for someone else.

However in this case, 彼女に have to be present because without it the sentence would not be complete in English. You have to specify to whom you did the action for in English. As compared to the previous example, where 私に can be implied, here in this example removing 彼女 from the sentence would mean, 'I ate for.' which is incomplete.

But in Japanese if the preceding conversation or context had already refered to a particular subject, then omission of 彼女に would be understood. So to err on the correct side, I would usually include to whom I did an action for (in Japanese) as this not only coincides with both the Japanese and English meaning, it's also easier to remember.

Are you clear up to this point? Ok take sometime to digest before you move on to the next part. Constipation at this point is really not advisable.

Part 2

私は彼女に食べさせた。

I made her eat.

Here most of the subjects remain unchange but take note of the particle は instead of が after 私. By using the particle は implies (in the example above) a general statement that I made her eat. However if the は is replaced by が then the sentence would mean,

I was the one who made her eat. So in the case you want to make a specific emphasize on the one who order the action, が would be a much stronger particle to use. Also note here that the verb 食べさせた have a different meaning altogether. It's not just about adding simple suffixes like giving or receiving an action (as compared to examples in Part 1). させた at the end of a verb implies that the action was forced or ordered or enforced by someone to another person. It can be from yourself to another person (example above) or in the case of reported speech, from person A to person B.

A は B に食べさせた。

A made B eat.

In the above example "I made her eat." implies that I ordered / commanded / forced, etc. her to perform an action. It is not to be confused with the Part 1 examples where a request or favor was asked and not imposed. Of course by changing the particle は to が the meaning would had been,

A was the one who made B eat.

Again you could be specific and include a noun followed by the を particle like in Part 1 examples.

私は彼女に馬刺しを食べさせた。

I made her eat horse sashimi.

A が B に馬刺しを食べさせた。

A was the one who made B eat horse sashimi.

In smuuary, the above examples in Part 2 is looking from the perspective of the 1st speaker. Please take some precious time to comprehend because the next part will be on the perspective of the second speaker.

Part 3

Hope you are doing fine up to this point...moving on. In contrast to the above examples where I, he, she, A or B which ever is placed as the 1st subject in the sentence, in Part 3 we structure the sentence where the perspective is from that of the second subject. So look at the example below,

A は B に食べさせた。

A made B eat.

This is from Part 2.

B は A に食べさせられた。

B was made to eat by A.

Notice how the emphasize in the second example the positions of A and B were switched without changing the particles. And also the verb at the end of the sentence was also changed to 食べさせられた instead of 食べさせた。Ok to explain this for easy understanding I can quite simply say that when させた is attached to the end of a verb, the sentence flows as the 1st subject mentioned made the 2nd subject mentioned do something against his / her own will. Like I have mentioned earlier this is not a request from the 1st subject but rather an action imposed like a command or by some kind of authority. When reversed, the entire meaning of the sentence is left unchanged but just that now we are speaking from the 2nd subject's perspective.

Again when the particle は is replaced by が then quite simply it would mean,

B が A に食べさせられた。

B was the one made to eat by A.

By including the noun followed by the particle を, then the sentence would be the same as ALL the examples (with the nouns) above. There is an entire chapter on this させた and させられた in the Japanese language so it's not as simple as you think. For a more indepth understanding I would suggest you read up on Japanese Language causative / causative passive grammatical sections.

That pretty sums up everything...Good Luck.