Making Requests
Politely (and not so politely) making requests
Similar to asking for favors, which we learned in the last lesson, there are also various ways to make requests in Japanese. This is effectively the Japanese way of saying, "please do X". We'll first learn the most common way to make requests using a special conjugation of the verb 「くださる」 and the firmer 「なさる」. Finally, we'll learn the rarely used excessively strong command form for the sake of completeness. You can safely skip the last part unless you're an avid reader of manga.
「～ください」－ a special conjugation of 「くださる」
「ください」 is a special conjugation of 「くださる」, which is the honorific form of 「くれる」. We will learn more about honorific and humble forms in the beginning of the next major section. We are going over 「ください」 here because it has a slight difference in meaning from the normal 「くれる」 and the honorific 「くださる」. 「ください」 is different from 「くれる」 in the following fashion:
- それをください。
Please give me that. - それをくれる？
Can you give me that?
As you can see 「ください」 is a direct request for something while 「くれる」 is used as a question asking for someone to give something. However, it is similar to 「くれる」 in that you can make a request for an action by simply attaching it to the te-form of the verb.
- 漢字で書いてください。
Please write it in kanji. - ゆっくり話してください。
Please speak slowly.
The rules for negative requests are same as the rules for 「くれる」 as well.
- 落書きを書かないでください。
Please don't write graffiti. - ここにこないでください。
Please don't come here.
In casual speech, it is often common to simply drop the 「ください」 part.
-
日本語で話して。
Please speak in Japanese. - 消しゴムを貸して。
Please lend me the eraser. - 遠い所に行かないで。
Please don't go to a far place.
For those who want to sound particularly commanding and manly, it is also possible to use 「くれる」 with the 「る」 removed.
-
日本語で話してくれ。
Speak in Japanese. - 消しゴムを貸してくれ。
Lend me the eraser. - 遠い所に行かないでくれ。
Don't go to a far place.
Because 「ください」 like the masu-form must always come at the end sentence or a subordinate clause, you cannot use it to directly modify a noun. For example, the following is not possible with 「ください」.
- お父さんがくれた時計が壊れた。
The clock that father gave broke.
Of course, since direct quotes is merely repeating something someone said in verbatim, you can put practically anything in a direct quote.
- 「それをください」とお父さんが言った。
Father said, "Please give me that."
Using 「～ちょうだい」 as a casual request
A casual alternative of 「ください」 used usually by females is 「ちょうだい」. It is always written in hiragana. Written in kanji, it is usually used in a very formal expression such as 「頂戴致します」. There's not much more to say here because grammatically; it works the same way as 「ください」.
Examples
- スプーンをちょうだい。
Please give me the spoon. - ここに名前を書いてちょうだい。
Please write your name here.
Using 「～なさい」 to make firm but polite requests
「なさい」 is a special honorific conjugation of 「する」. It is a soft yet firm way of issuing a command. It is used, for example, when a mother is scolding her child or when a teacher wants a delinquent student to pay attention. Unlike 「ください」, 「なさい」 only applies to positive verbs and uses the stem of the verb instead of the te-form. It also cannot be used by itself but must be attached to another verb.
- Conjugate the verb to its stem and attach 「なさい」
- 例） 食べ
る→ 食べなさい - 例） 飲
む→ 飲み → 飲みなさい - 例） する → し → しなさい
Examples
- よく聞きなさい！
Listen well! - ここに座りなさい。
Sit here.
You can also drop 「さい」 portion of the 「なさい」 to make a casual version of this grammar.
- まだいっぱいあるから、たくさん食べな。
There's still a lot, so eat a lot. - それでいいと思うなら、そうしなよ。
If you think that's fine, then go ahead and do it.
The Command Form
We will go over the command form in the interest of covering all the possible verb conjugations. In reality, the command form is rarely used as Japanese people tend to be too polite to use imperatives. Also, this coarse type of speech is rarely, if indeed at all, used by females who tend to use 「なさい」 or an exasperated 「くれる」 when angry or irritated. This form is only really useful for reading or watching fictional works. You may often see or hear 「死ね！」 ("Die!") in fiction which, of course, you'll never hear in real life. (I hope!)
Be sure to note that, in addition to the familiar 「する」, 「くる」 exception verbs, 「くれる」 is also an exception for the command form.
- ru-verbs - Replace the 「る」 with 「ろ」
- u-verbs - Change the last character from an / u / vowel to an / e / vowel
- Exceptions - 「する」 becomes 「しろ」, 「くる」 becomes 「こい」, 「くれる」 becomes 「くれ」
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Examples
- 好きにしろ。
Do as you please. - あっち行け！
Go away! - 早く酒を持ってきてくれ。
Hurry up and bring me some alcohol.
The negative command form is very simple: simply attach 「な」 to either ru-verbs or u-verbs. Don't confuse this with the 「な」 sentence-ending particle we will be learning at the end of this section. The intonation is totally different.
- Attach 「な」 to the verb.
- 例） 行く → 行くな
- 例） する → するな
Examples
- それを食べるな！
Don't eat that! - 変なことを言うな！
Don't say such weird things!
This is not to be confused with the shortened version of 「～なさい」 we just learned in the last section. The most obvious difference (besides the clear difference in tone) is that in 「～なさい」, the verb is first converted to the stem while the negative command has no conjugation. For example, for 「する」, 「しな」 would be the short version of 「しなさい」 while 「するな」 would be a negative command.
Do you mean that using the
Do you mean that using the て form alone is actually *more* polite than using くれ (which is adding on a verb meaning "hand down to me").
It's the opposite of what one would guess logically.
When it's the て verb by
When it's the て verb by itself, there's an implied ください, so it's less polite than that. But くれ is the COMMAND form of くれる. There's nothing polite about that.
The polite request... or
The polite request... or simply honorific/respectful to do something normally? Negative form is pure imperative?
It seems that the "polite request" uses 為さる, which is same as する, but in honorific/respectful speech.
As in "positive" context, 為さる seems to be in I-form, 為さり, but has changed in time to be なさい (as it seems to be pretty common is honorific language, where Godan RU becomes I, rather than RI), just like いらっしゃる -> いらっしゃい, and left MASU from the end.
いらっしゃいます -> いらっしゃい
為さいます -> なさい ? (To do politely in honorific/respectful language ?)
感謝なさい = (Politely saying in honorific) Be grateful. (And is not a request?)
Negative form is straight negative form of imperative, adding NA after 為さる
感謝なさるな = (saying in honorific) Not be grateful. (Which is same as 感謝するな = Not be grateful [in more casual language]).
Are there any requests in Japan? If not, then this is a simply a way as we, non-native people, see this context to be used as a request in our own culture and teach it to ourselfs that this is a request? I've always wondered, can we truly understand other languages, other than our native language? Is the language barrier unbreakable and we can never truly understand japanese language? Here are few examples:
Fourth planet in our solar system is Mars, as romans named it after their God of War. Naturally when seeking Mars in japanese, we'll find 火星 (kasei), but is 火星 = Mars? Do japanese people see it as Mars as we see? When looking Kanjis, 火 is associated with fire, burning etc. and 星 with marks, spots and stars. So is 火星 Burning spot? Fire star? Fry mark? Or even something that we cannot even guess? Like: Horse drinking coffee? We can never know. Also "kanji translations" are collected from observations, as where in our point of view, japanese people use these kanjis, and have never been truly tested?
I own Sega Saturn and I have fantastic game for it -- which I currently play with my PC, since my Sega Saturn broke down ages ago -- called Guardian Heroes. I have japanese version of it. Here we have a heroine called セレナ. Now what would be her name if it's translated? In official US release, her name is Serena, but it could be also Selena, or even Celena or Cerena? How we can know what is her name if it's foreign origin? To japanese this is no problem, since her name is セレナ. There is no other way saying it. But to us it's problematic and many people call her Selena or Serena, or whatever name they found suitable for them. And if the original author of that character is perished before he had a change to tell the truth about her name, we will never know her name in our language.
I have one game, japanese version, and we have an item called: "加速の妙薬" (kasoku no myouyaku) and huge problem now is that what this item is truly called for us? 加速 means Acceleration; Speed up; Accelerator. 妙薬 means Wonder Drug; Miracle Cure. So what shall it be called? Accelerator's Miracle Cure? Wonder Drug of Speed Up? These translations do sound strange. Of course, we can never know what it accurately means in western languages.
Basically: we can talk to japanese, but we can never understand them. So it's kind of a paradox to try to learn a language which you cannot understand. (Any language).
As for these romanjis.
I think that official and unofficial typing is good to know. But never take it as it's written with a computer. One perfect example is one anime called 神無月の巫女. You write it with keyboard as "kannaduki no miko", but it's NEVER said kannaduki, but kannazuki. On many western sites, I've seen it typed as "Kannaduki no miko" but that's not how you say it. The reason why you type づ with computer DU is that even that there is no DU-pronounce in japan, づ is pretty rare and combination DU is "empty combination", so programmers added づ to comibation DU to have easy access for it -- to make thing easier. Typing ZU brings ず/ズ and 6 other possible kanjis. So it would be "more complicated" to add づ also there and leave combination DU to be empty. And how about つづく = To continue. It sounds very strange if you pronounce it as TSUDUKU and not TSUZUKU. When saying as DU, it feels like TSU hits a wall and it's very difficult say つづく fluently. And when "forcing", it sounds afwul at the least. But with ZU, it sounds natural and my japanese acquaintance also raises his thumb.
I'm a finn, and finns and japanese pronounce letters pretty much the same, so for me it's easy to learn to speak japanese. And I might add that じゃ and ちゃ are in my opinion pronounced more like JYA and CYA, rather than JA and CHA. 少女 sound very strange when I pronounce it as SHOUJO/SHOUJYO rather than SYOUJOU and my japanese friends also say that when I pronounce it as SYOUJYO, it sounds more accurate. But it's a lot easier to type SHOUJO than SYOUJYO with a keyboard. And I think that's why many people pronounce it as SHOUJO. Some even forgetting to pronounce U, thus leading SHOJO/SYOJYO, which basically is 処女 (Virgin) and we've had a few laughs with it.
I consider myself proficient with english, but do I truly understand it? Proficient is usually translated in finnish as (Etevä; taitava; mestarillinen) but these words aren't on the same starting line. I see myself as "Etevä" (Be somewhat good at something with "natural" knack for it), not "Mestarillinen" (Masterful. Expert on something which makes you noticable even amongst your peers) or even "Taitava" (As a result of a lot of practise and dedication). So you might understand the sentence completly differently than me. I think these issues are something that we all should be considering. To think our limitations of understanding foreign languages.
Skeptikkofilosofi
Thanks for your long
Thanks for your long post.
After doing many things (reading, listening, etc) in the target language, I think, understanding won't be that difficult. Practice is important.
As for your questions about the "polite request", I want to say, using ください is doing a polite request, yes, request. It's inappropriate to say something like "同席させてください" (Please let me sit with you) when you are in a restaurant because the one you're talking to doesn't have the duty to let you sit with him / her. Instead, 同席させてもらえませんか is used in that situation. For that's not a request.
なさい, however, isn't even a polite request now. It is more like a command but soft. And 感謝なさい is right but seldom used; instead one uses 感謝しなさい more often. 感謝なさるな is bad because な is never used with an honorific.
Mars is 火星 in Japanese just because they was learning from Chinese. So Japanese use the same name. The origin of that name in Chinese is yet another thing. In ancient China people thought there are five elements: fire, metal, water, wood, earth, and they associated each element to the five planets in the solar system they knew then. (Uranus, neptune were not discovered yet) I don't really know why they associated fire with Mars but not, say, Mercury, yet that's it. Maybe because the planet is red.
As for "加速の妙薬", 加速 means speed up, and 妙薬 is just a drug or a potion. The "wonder" here is for nothing but exaggeration. So it is simply a speed-up potion. (OK, you can say "a wonder speed-up potion" if you want the "wonder") Well, in fact 加速の薬 or 加速の霊薬 or 加速の秘薬 can have the same meaning, unless the game maker intends to use the "wonder", "secret" there to mark the level of the potion. Get used to such kind of things in Japanese games.
As for romajis, they are no more than writing the sounds in a way acceptable to the westerners. So "shoujo" and "syoujyo" are the same thing for Japanese.
I have seen ~ください used with
I have seen ~ください used with the stem rather than the conjunctive ~て-form. E.g. 「ライセンスを読みください」. Does this carry another nuance, or are they equivalent?
Don't take my word for it,
Don't take my word for it, but as I understand.
～ください = Please give me (In honorific language)
～て/でください = Please do for me (Polite language)
車下さい = Please give me a car
食べてください = Please eat for me. (Please eat)
死んでください = Please die for me. (Please die)
ライセンスを読みください
Please give me license reading.
ライセンスを読んでください
Please read lincense for me.
Skeptikkofilosofi
＠ Ｉ am an English Teacher
＠ Ｉ am an English Teacher
つ should be pronounced "tsu" not "tu"
し should be pronounced "shi" not "si"
じ should be pronounced "ji" not "zi"
As a student of Japanese and a former Japanology student, about the mentioned sound aboe. Japanese uses three Romanisations. Kunrei, Heppunshiki (named after Curtis Hepurn), both are as equally official used and Nihonshiki. Unfortunately the Government knows about those tu si zi and uses like in the Heppunshiki, tsu, shi and ji.
The problem about the japanase Romanisation is, as all three have their strong and weak points, altough all of them have the ra/ri/ru/re/ro with an r which for all three is quite wrong. The problem is, the first romanisation ever was done by Portugese missinaries and Heppurn slightly modified it. From that point, the Japanese still used and assumed the transcription up to now, and never changed it. By the way, Japanese normally don't know an "r" nor an "l" sound either.
"r" seems, in truth, somewhat
"r" seems, in truth, somewhat appropriate as an approximate transcription of the Japanese voiced alveolar flap (sometimes a voiced alveolar trill in accordance with sociolect differences), being that IPA (the International-Phonetic-Alphabet) designates a trill with "r" and a flap with a tail-less "r."
While using the designation of "r" seems misleading, it might be stated here that it is only so with regard to the "r" used in most Germanic languages (such as English), which is typically a voiced retroflex sonorant (a rather rare phoneme, even among languages using the roman alphabet) or a uvular trill (as in German, Norweigian, and French).
From a non-anglocentric point of view, "r" works rather well.
The 'r' in Japanese is a
The 'r' in Japanese is a "tap-flap" and is best approximated in English with 'r' because it's too hard to explain that the closest approximation to it is some dialects of English's "tt" sound, such as in "letter" where the "t" sound isn't really pronounced at all, but instead basically becomes a lazy version of the sound.
My question is about the
My question is about the なさい-form. I recently found this verb construction.
取んなさい, but I don't get it. Is it the -テ形 without て and is it more softly than the other -ます形+なさい form?
Please help me out.
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