3

I'm not sure, but I think there is an error in Genki's Grammar point of Lesson 16:

In the first grammar point they explain ~てあげる/くれる and say that if a verb doesn't have a "beneficiaries part" like 〇〇さんに貸してあげる, for example with the verb 行く, you can use 〇〇さんのために as a substitute. They give this example sentence:

私は智子さんのために買い物に行きました。
I went shopping for Tomoko

But it's completely missing the あげる.

Shouldn't it be 私は智子さんのために買い物に行ってあげました。?

First I thought "well ok, you don't actually use あげる here", but down the grammar point they make the same remark in regards to くれる, that even though it is mostly clear already who is the beneficiary, but you really want explicitly state who receives the benefit, and if the verb you want to use has no place for a person, you use のために again.

But here the example sentences uses ~てくれる unlike above where they didn't use ~てあげる:

けんさんが私のために部屋を掃除してくれました。
Ken cleaned the room for me.

Question is now: Was this a mistake by Genki? Do you actually use ~てあげる when you use のために or only with ~てくれる like they did. They didn't mention this at all that the example sentences under あげる doesn't use てあげる but under the "くれる"-section the example sentence uses てくれる.

1 Answer 1

3

私は智子さんのために買い物に行きました。

私は智子さんのために買い物に行ってあげました。

私は買い物に行ってあげました。

けんさんが私のために部屋を掃除してくれました。

けんさんが部屋を掃除してくれました。

けんさんが私のために部屋を掃除しました。

They are all correct. To be honest, they are not that different. With くれました or あげました, the fact that someone is a beneficiary could have slight emphasis.

2
  • I also asked on a subreddit and there someone said that I can't use のために + てあげる when it's a intransitive verb like 行く. Now I'm a bit confused
    – Phothiabea
    Commented Mar 6, 2016 at 17:34
  • 「僕は君のために行ってあげる。」sounds natural to me. Also, there are some usages on the internet. google.co.jp/…
    – Keita ODA
    Commented Mar 7, 2016 at 3:43

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .