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In the light novel that I'm reading, the protagonist is creatively arguing with his friend to obtain more sleeping time.

However, I'm a bit confused about how to handle the 起こしに in this sentence.

だからもう無理して起こしに来なくてもいいよ

According to my research,

起こし is the renyokei form of 起こす, meaning to wake up.

is the particle Ni and it's used to indicate purpose.

来なくて is the negative -te form of come, so don't come.

I know that the sentence means,

Since it would be more unreasonable otherwise, it is okay if you do not come and wake me up.

The problem that I'm having is in the translation process.

Most of the time, when I see a verb before a -Ni, it'll be in the -te form. If that were the case here, like 起こしてに来なくて, I'd be able to translate that part as don't come to wake up

However, whenever I see the renyokei form of a verb, I'll insert an "and", and that's where my translation falls flat. My problem right now is that, for 起こしに来なくて, I get a literal translation, "don't come to wake up and"

I understand that it shouldn't be taken literally, but it does suggest that "wake up" needs to be connected to something else like もいい. The problem is that this doesn't fit with any grammar that I've learned so far -- especially because the link in the middle of a subordinate clause extends out it -- so I'm not confident at all in this leap of logic?

I wish to request clarification because I've searched and could not find any examples explaining why the Renyokei form is being used here.

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  • BTW it means "so, you don't have to bother to come to wake me up any more".
    – user4092
    Apr 7, 2015 at 9:01

1 Answer 1

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Most of the time, when I see a verb before a -Ni, it'll be in the -te form.

Maybe you could provide some example? IMO, this is 100% wrong. You first assumption is false and that is what probably confuses you.

verb A (renhyoukei) + ni + verb B means to b to a. That is all you need to know.
Thus, 起こしに来る means to come to wake up.

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  • This is the moment where I facepalm and slam my head on the desk. A classic example of "when you need to find it, it's not there anymore." Now the examples that I'm finding are using the renhyoukei form and not the -te form.
    – MingShun
    Apr 7, 2015 at 0:32

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