てもらう
- 1To have someone do something for you, receiving the action as a favor or benefit.Ex. 1
- 2To get someone to do something for you, including ongoing or arranged help.Ex. 2
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Used in everyday speech and writing when the speaker, or someone in the speaker's group, benefits from another person's action. The receiver is the subject and the giver is marked with に. Compared with てくれる, which makes the giver the subject, てもらう tells the event from the receiver's side.
Learners often mark the person doing the favor with が instead of に in てもらう sentences.
Do not use てもらう for favors you do for others; use てあげる instead.
Note that with superiors or in formal situations, ていただく is more appropriate than てもらう.
- てくれるN4「てくれる」takes the giver as the subject, marked with 「が」: 「友達が買ってくれた」and 「友達に買ってもらった」describe the same event, so they are interchangeable by switching perspective. When requesting, say 「てくれませんか」; the honorific form of 「てくれる」is 「てくださる」.
- 〜ていただくN4「ていただく」is the humble version of 「てもらう」, with the same meaning and structure (the giver is marked with 「に」). However, the level of politeness differs: use 「ていただく」for bosses, teachers, customers, or in formal situations, and do not swap them casually.
- てあげるN4「てあげる」takes the giver (one's own side) as the subject and expresses doing something for someone else, with 「に」marking the beneficiary; 「てもらう」takes the beneficiary as the subject, with 「に」marking the giver. The two point in opposite directions and cannot be interchanged.
- てやるN4「てやる」is used when the speaker does something for a peer, junior, or an animal/plant; the subject is the giver, and the tone is condescending and colloquial. It can also express deliberately annoying someone or a defiant resolve. 「てもらう」has the beneficiary as the subject, so the two cannot be interchanged.
- てほしいN4「てほしい」only expresses a wish and cannot describe a favor already received; it is close in meaning to 「てもらいたい」and mostly interchangeable, but more direct in tone. It can also express wishing for a change of state, as in 「病気が治ってほしい」, which 「てもらう」cannot do.
てもらう makes the receiver the subject, while てくれる makes the giver the subject. ていただく is its humble, more polite form. てあげる and てやる describe doing a favor for others, with てやる being casual or directed at inferiors. てほしい expresses wanting someone to do something rather than actually receiving the action.
