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For example:

褒めてもらった

I can tell it's probably about getting praised.

However

母に車で送ってもらった。

Is "I had my mom drive me here":

How does one get the difference?

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I may be wrong about this but I've come to believe that "I had someone do something for me" is a terrible translation, invented by people who don't understand the nuance of this English sentence; probably to make the subject of the verb match correctly.

I think "I had ..." in this context is intended to mean "I received the experience of ..." which is a valid translation. But my native English brain instantly interprets "I had ..." in this context as the result of a demand/request. I don't believe there is any such demand/request nuance in the Japanese version.

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The best thing to do is to analyse the sentence gramatically. This way you can know what is really being said, at least literally. I.e. you add the idiomatic meaning on top.

母に車で送ってもらった。

母に: ni particle, with もらう it marks the person you receive from

車で: the "limits" of the action occurs within car

送って: many meanings, I will go with "to take someone somewhere"

もらった "receive" in past tense

The subject can only be marked by ga. So it's implicit, most likely "I". Then:

(I) received from my mother the action of taking (me) (somewhere)

褒めてもらった

I received praising

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