Giving and Receiving in Japanese - Agemasu, Kuremasu, Moraimasu PDF

2/8/2019 Giving and Receiving in Japanese - Agemasu, Kuremasu, Moraimasu - 80/20 Japanese
Giving and Receiving in Japanese –

Agemasu, Kuremasu, Moraimasu
The words used to describe the acts of giving and receiving in Japanese can be
quite confusing, but they needn’t be.
In a nutshell, there are two words that mean “to give”:
agemasu
kuremasu
And another word that means “to receive”:
https://8020japanese.com/giving-and-receiving/ 1/26
moraimasu
What most often confuses people is the fact that there are three words to describe
actions that, in English, can be expressed with just two words.
More options = more trying-to-figure-out-when-to-use-what.
Fortunately, however, there is a simple way to look at these words that will
eliminate any uncertainty about their use in 99% of situations.
In this article, we will see how we can easily differentiate between the words for
“giving” and “receiving” in Japanese. In doing so, we will also cover everything you
need to know to form sentences using the verbs 「あげます」, 「くれます」, and
「もらいます」.
Get the Giving & Receiving Cheat Sheet
Download the free one-page, printable PDF cheat sheet for this article.
Get the cheat sheet
Contents
How to say “give” in Japanese
Example sentences using 「あげます」 and 「くれます」
The non-existence of indirect objects
Determining which direction applies in less-obvious cases
How to say “receive” in Japanese
Which particles to use with “moraimasu”
An alternative way to think about 「に」
Bonus: Super-polite verbs for giving and receiving
Key Takeaways
Check or uncheck the boxes below to show or hide each version of the Japanese sentences:
Romaji
Kana
Kanji
Furigana
How to say “give” in Japanese – Agemasu

and Kuremasu
As we saw, Japanese has two words that mean “to give” – 「あげます」 and 「くれ
ます」.
It is important to know that these words are NOT interchangeable.
Only one is appropriate in any given situation. The best way to look at these words
is to compare them to the words “go” and “come”.
Why?
Because “go” and “come” can both be used to describe the same action – all that is
different is the perspective.
Ultimately, both words describe the act of one person or thing moving from one
place to another.
We use the word “go” when the direction of that movement is away from us, and
we use the word “come” when the direction of that movement is towards us.
The action itself is exactly the same – only the word used to describe it is different.
This concept applies perfectly to the act of giving in Japanese.
In English, we use the word “give” to describe the act of someone giving something
to someone. It does not matter what direction that act of giving occurs.
We can show this easily using a diagram similar to the one above:
The direction of the giving does not matter – the word we use to describe that
action is the same.
In Japanese, the word we use is different. Let’s take a look:
Just like with the words “go” and “come”, Japanese has two different words to
describe the same action depending on the perspective.
In terms of the direction of the movement:
Go ≈ あげます
Come ≈ くれます
So, if you ever need to say that someone gave something to someone else, it
should be very clear which word you should choose.
If the direction of the giving is away from you, use 「あげます」
If the direction of the giving is towards you, use 「くれます」
And, just like the word “go”…
If the direction of the “giving” is between two distant entities – neither towards
you nor away from you – then we use 「あげます」
That’s the main thing to remember. Now let’s look at some examples so we can see
how this works in practice.
Example sentences using 「あげます」 and 「くれま

す」
Firstly, let’s start with a sentence describing “going” and then morph it slightly to be
an act of “giving” instead:
I will go to Yūsuke’s house.

わたしはゆうすけのいえにいきます。
わたしいえい
私はゆうすけの家に行きます。
I will give Yūsuke a book.

わたしはゆうすけにほんをあげます。
わたしほん
私はゆうすけに本をあげます。
Here these are in our sentence structure diagram:
I go to Yūsuke’s house.
I give a book to Yūsuke.
Note that:
わたしわたし
I, 「私」, am performing the act of giving, hence 「私」 is the topic marked by
the particle 「は」.
The destination or end-point of each action is marked by the particle 「に」:

いえ
ゆうすけの家に = to Yūsuke’s house
ゆうすけに = to Yūsuke
The biggest difference is that in the “giving” sentence, there is another element –
ほん
「本」, a book. This is the thing the act of giving is done to, so it is the object of the
sentence, and therefore marked by the particle 「を」.
We never have such an object in a sentence using 「行きます」 because, well, you
don’t “go something” like you might “give something”.
Overall, the sentences have a very similar structure, and they both describe the
movement of something (ie. “me” or a book) away from the person speaking.
Now let’s look at an example using 「来ます」 and 「くれます」:
Yūsuke comes to my house.

ゆうすけはわたしのいえにきます。
わたしいえき
ゆうすけは私の家に来ます。
Yūsuke gives a book to me.

ゆうすけはわたしにほんをくれます。

わたしほん
ゆうすけは私に本をくれます。
Here these are in diagram form:
Yūsuke comes to my house.
If we put this side-by-side with our 「あげます」 example, you can see that they
are basically the same:
わたし
All we have done, really, is swap 「私」 and 「ゆうすけ」, and, since that changes
the direction of the movement to be towards us, we use 「くれます」 instead.
So, in both cases, the structure is basically this:
[Topic] gives [object] to [destination]
We just choose 「あげます」 or 「くれます」 depending on whether we are the

originator of the giving, or the destination.
The non-existence of indirect objects

As a bit of a side note, English has these fun things called indirect objects that allow
us to express the same exact idea in two different ways. I only mention it because
Japanese does not have an equivalent expression, so this might save you from
wondering if there is.
Consider these sentences with perfectly equivalent meanings:
I will give a book to Yūsuke.
Now, the first example is almost identical to how Japanese treats these situations.
Subject = I (because it’s before the verb, “will give”)
Object = a book (because it’s after the verb)
Destination = Yūsuke (because the preposition “to” tells us so)
The second sentence, however, puts “Yūsuke” in between the verb and “a book”.
This is called an indirect object.

“A book” is still the object – or more precisely, the direct object – since it is the thing
being given, but we can insert a person in between the verb and the object as an
indirect object to tell us that that person is the recipient. This also works with verbs
like “send” (I sent my friend a book = to my friend), or even “buy” (I bought my
friend a book = for my friend).
In Japanese, of course, the sentence always looks like this:
ほん
The order of 「ゆうすけに」 and 「本を」 doesn’t really matter, so although we do

have two options for this sentence…

わたしはゆうすけにほんをあげます。
本をあげます。
わたしほん
私はゆうすけに
…and…

わたしはほんをゆうすけにあげます。
本をゆうすけにあげます。
わたしほん
私は
…the rules are no different to any other sentence.
Particles tell us everything we need to know, so as long as we attach the right ones,
we don’t really have to worry too much about word order.
This is one example of why Japanese is so simple. English learners have to use
word order to figure out if something is an object or an indirect object, and if they
get it backwards, they end up giving people way instead of books. In Japanese, we
just need to know which particle does what and that’s it.
Determining which direction applies in less-obvious

cases
Most of the time, it is fairly easy to determine if the direction of the movement of
an object is towards us or away from us, but there are a few potentially confusing
situations we should clarify.
Firstly, as mentioned earlier, if you are talking about an act of giving that is directed
away from yourself, or between two third parties, use the word 「あげます」.
This is the same as if you were talking about someone going away from you, or
between two distant locations (point A to point B) – you would use the word “go”.
You would only use the word 「くれます」 when the direction of the movement is
towards you, just as you would only use the word “come” if the direction of the
movement is towards you. This diagram sums it up:
Secondly, the use of the word 「くれます」 is not limited to discussion about
yourself personally – it also applies to people in your group.
For example, if I am talking to Yūsuke about something that Asami gave to Yūsuke,
I should use the word 「くれます」, even though I myself am not the recipient. I
think we need another diagram:
The reason for this is because, since Yūsuke and I are in the conversation together,
the direction of the giving is still towards me, relatively. Yes, it’s primarily towards
Yūsuke, but because Yūsuke and I are together at the time of this conversation,
from my perspective, the gift has moved in my direction.
Again, this is (in most cases) the same as the normal use of the word 「来ま
す」 (come). If instead of a book, Asami herself moved towards Yūsuke, and I was
with Yūsuke discussing this, I would describe this action using the word “come”, not
“go”.
How to say “receive” in Japanese –

Moraimasu
The words for giving and receiving are usually introduced together, and they are, of
course, very much related, but we need to be clear about something.
The concept of “receiving” has absolutely no impact on your choice of the word for
“giving”.
That’s why we haven’t mentioned it yet.
If you want to say that one person gave something to another person, you use one
of the words that means “give”, and we now know how to choose the appropriate
one.
Receiving is a different action.
Yes, the event of one person passing an object to another person is the same
regardless of what word we use to describe it, but that’s irrelevant.
Why?
Because the person who performs the action is different.
This may seem very obvious, but when you GIVE something to someone, YOU give
it, and THEY receive it. Those are two separate actions.
Consider this event:
We can describe this one of two ways:
Ken gives Tarō a pen.

けんはたろうにペンをあげます。
けんはたろうにペンをあげます。
Tarō receives a pen from Ken.

たろうはけんにペンをもらいます。
たろうはけんにペンをもらいます。
The topic of these sentences is different. One is talking about an action that Ken
does, the other is talking about an action that Taro does. They are different
actions, even if both refer to the same actual event.
Remembering this should help us a lot in choosing the appropriate particles.
Which particles to use with “moraimasu”

For the word 「もらいます」, the person performing the act of receiving is the
topic. Here’s a basic example in the past tense:
I received a book
If we want to say who the book was received from, then we need to include the
origin. One way to do this is to use the basic origin element that uses the particle
「から」:
I received a book from Yūsuke.

わたしはゆうすけからほんをもらいました。
わたしほん
私はゆうすけから本をもらいました。
Here’s this sentence in diagram form:
I received a book from Yūsuke
However, we can also (and generally should) use the particle 「に」 instead of 「か
ら」. This probably seems like a strange choice, but there is a very good reason for
it.
As we have already seen, one of the uses of the particle 「に」 is to define the
destination of an action involving movement. Here, however, it is describing the
origin of an action involving movement – the exact opposite.
The reason for this is because the word 「もらいます」 is passive in nature. This is
unlike most other regular verbs, which are active in nature.
A verb that is passive describes an action from the perspective of a person that
didn’t actually have to do anything themselves. Instead, they had something done
to them, and their role in the action was passive. Rather than do the action, they
undergo it.
In the case of receiving something, a person can literally do nothing in the process
of receiving. The person that actually moved their body to make something
happen is someone else – the person that gave them something. So, Taro can just
kick back while Ken does all the work:
Most regular verbs are active by nature, but they usually also have a passive form.
This is the same in both English and Japanese. For example, the passive form of “to
み
see” is, “to be seen”. In Japanese, too, the passive form of 「見ます」(meaning
み
“see”) is 「見られます」 (“to be seen”). This is not really a separate word, but just
the passive form of a verb that is usually active. Most passive verbs are derived
from active verbs in a similar way.
In the case of 「もらいます」, it could be argued that it, too, is technically an active
verb, but its meaning is predominantly passive.
More importantly, the way we use it is consistent with passive verbs, particularly
when it comes to choosing a particle.
The use of a passive verb effectively causes the meaning of the particle 「に」 to
flip, so instead of describing the destination, it describes the origin.
So, taking this into account, we can rewrite this sentence like this:

わたしはゆうすけにほんをもらいました。
わたしほん
私はゆうすけに本をもらいました。
And we can represent this in our diagram as follows:
Now, let’s look again at the examples from earlier using the words 「あげます」
and 「くれます」 (except this time in the past tense).
I gave Yūsuke a book.
Yūsuke gave me a book.
As you can see, the topic of these sentences is the GIVER, while the topic of our
sentence with 「もらいます」 is the RECEIVER.
Meanwhile, the role of the particle 「に」 is also flipped. It tells us the destination
of the object being given when using one of the two active “give” words, 「あげま
す」 and 「くれます」, but it defines the origin of the object being received when
using the passive word 「もらいます」.
Lastly, as with the “giving” sentences, the order of the ‘Other Information’ – the
origin and the object – does not really affect the meaning, so more generally, the
structure looks like this:
An alternative way to think about 「に」

Rather than thinking of 「に」 as the particle for marking a destination or
origin, we could think about it as marking a counterparty. That is:
When talking about giving and receiving, the particle 「に」 defines the
counterparty.
The counterparty is, of course, the receiver when the verb describes giving (あげ
ます or くれます), and the giver when the verb describes receiving (もらいます).
This is simpler in some ways, but I have chosen the destination/origin

description because these terms have a much more obvious sense of direction.
They also align well with other situations where there is a verb involving
movement, such as “go” and “come”, so it reduces the number of definitions for
「に」 that we need to remember.
Of course, if “counterparty” makes more sense to you, use that!
Bonus: Super-polite verbs for giving and

receiving
The basic, polite forms of these three verbs are the ones we have used thus far: あ
げます, くれます and もらいます.
The informal/dictionary forms of these verbs are very similar: あげる, くれる and も
らう. These are simply a different conjugation of the same three verbs.
If, however, we go up another level from basic politeness to what we might call the
“super-polite” form, the words change completely (well, two of them do anyway).
And, since the acts of giving and receiving are a fairly important part of Japanese
etiquette and culture, you are likely to hear these more frequently than many
other super-polite terms.
Here is the present/future tense of all three politeness levels together:
English Informal Polite Super-polite
Give (away from yourself) あげるあげますさしあげます
Give (towards yourself) くれるくれますくださいます
Receive もらうもらいますいただきます
You might recognise two of these in particular:
The word 「ください」, meaning “please”, is from 「くださいます」. So, when

ま
you say something like, 「待ってください」 (please wait), you are sort of
saying, “give to me by waiting”.
The word 「いただきます」 is what Japanese people say before they eat. They
are effectively saying, “I will receive (this food)”.
Anywho, we can use these verbs in a sentence by simply substituting them for
their less polite equivalents:
Of course, given that you are describing giving/receiving something to/from

someone “above” you, you would generally substitute “Yūsuke” for a more polite
name or title, but that’s a whole other discussion for another day.
Key Takeaways
Describing giving and receiving in Japanese is quite simple if we internalise a few
basic rules.
Giving
There are two words for “give”: 「あげます」 and 「くれます」
「あげます」 should be used when the direction of the giving is away from
you, or between two third-parties. It has the same directionality as the word
“go”.
「くれます」 should be used when the direction of the giving is towards you,
including situations where you are simply closer to the recipient than the giver.
It has the same directionality as the word “come”.
The giver is the topic/subject of the sentence. That is, the person who does the
giving is the person performing the action described by 「あげます」 and 「く
れます」
The particle 「に」 defines the destination of the giving – that is, the recipient.
Receiving
There is one word for “receive”: 「もらいます」
The receiver is the topic/subject of the sentence. That is, the person who does
the receiving is the person performing the action described by 「もらいます」.
This is the opposite of 「あげます」 and 「くれます」.
Since the verb 「もらいます」 is passive in nature, the particle 「に」 defines
the origin of the thing being given.
Basically, this:
Get the Giving & Receiving Cheat Sheet
Review this article any time with your free one-page, printable PDF cheat
sheet.
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by Richard Webb | March 7, 2019 | 4 comments
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Click Here to Leave a Comment Below
 Reply
Darkzarich - March 7, 2019
Thanks for this article and the cheat sheet. Even though
I’ve already known this topic never hurts to repeat
something again
 Reply
Masar - March 8, 2019
Vey nice to learn in logical way, thanks
San - March 8, 2019  Reply
Very nice article and make the topic of giving and

receiving easy to understand. Thanks!
 Reply
Mora - March 26, 2019
The graphics are perfect to communicate the whys and

hows. I own your 80/20 textbook and would love to see
these graphics in the next edition. Thanks very much!
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2/8/2019 Giving and Receiving in Japanese - Agemasu, Kuremasu, Moraimasu - 80/20 Japanese

Giving and Receiving in Japanese –

In a nutshell, there are two words that mean “to give”:

And another word that means “to receive”:

More options = more trying-to-ﬁgure-out-when-to-use-what.

Get the Giving & Receiving Cheat Sheet

Get the cheat sheet

Example sentences using 「あげます」 and 「くれます」

The non-existence of indirect objects

Determining which direction applies in less-obvious cases

How to say “receive” in Japanese

Which particles to use with “moraimasu”

An alternative way to think about 「に」

Bonus: Super-polite verbs for giving and receiving

How to say “give” in Japanese – Agemasu

It is important to know that these words are NOT interchangeable.

This concept applies perfectly to the act of giving in Japanese.

In Japanese, the word we use is diﬀerent. Let’s take a look:

In terms of the direction of the movement:

If the direction of the giving is away from you, use 「あげます」

If the direction of the giving is towards you, use 「くれます」

And, just like the word “go”…

Example sentences using 「あげます」 and 「くれま

I will go to Yūsuke’s house.

I will give Yūsuke a book.

Here these are in our sentence structure diagram:

I give a book to Yūsuke.

The destination or end-point of each action is marked by the particle 「に」:

ゆうすけの家に = to Yūsuke’s house

Now let’s look at an example using 「来ます」 and 「くれます」:

Yūsuke comes to my house.

Yūsuke gives a book to me.

ゆうすけ は わたし に ほん を くれます。

Here these are in diagram form:

Yūsuke comes to my house.

Yūsuke gives a book to me.

I give a book to Yūsuke.

Yūsuke gives a book to me.

So, in both cases, the structure is basically this:

[Topic] gives [object] to [destination]

We just choose 「あげます」 or 「くれます」 depending on whether we are the

The non-existence of indirect objects

Consider these sentences with perfectly equivalent meanings:

I will give a book to Yūsuke.

I will give Yūsuke a book.

Subject = I (because it’s before the verb, “will give”)

Object = a book (because it’s after the verb)

Destination = Yūsuke (because the preposition “to” tells us so)

This is called an indirect object.

In Japanese, of course, the sentence always looks like this:

I give a book to Yūsuke.

The order of 「ゆうすけに」 and 「本を」 doesn’t really matter, so although we do

I will give Yūsuke a book.

I will give Yūsuke a book.

…the rules are no diﬀerent to any other sentence.

Determining which direction applies in less-obvious

How to say “receive” in Japanese –

That’s why we haven’t mentioned it yet.

Receiving is a diﬀerent action.

Because the person who performs the action is diﬀerent.

Consider this event:

We can describe this one of two ways:

Ken gives Tarō a pen.

ゆうすけはわたしにほんをくれます。

Give (away from yourself) あげるあげますさしあげます

Give (towards yourself) くれるくれますくださいます

Receive もらうもらいますいただきます