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”:

• 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 “agemasu”「あげます」, “kuremasu”「くれます」, and “moraimasu”「もらいます」.

Japanese Verb Tense Cheat Sheet

Even though Japanese has relatively few verb tenses and forms compared to many languages, there are still quite a lot of variations – all of which take time to learn and internalize.

That’s where a cheat sheet can help! Something like this…

This Japanese Verb Tense Cheat Sheet summarizes everything you need to know to understand:

• how Japanese verbs are conjugated
• the most useful and important verb tenses and forms, and
• when to use each tense/form.

There are two versions – one with hiragana, one with romaji – and both are free!

Here’s a quick breakdown of the sections of the cheat sheet:

Ni vs De: How to choose between these two location-defining particles

Two of the first particles that you are likely to encounter when learning Japanese are “ni”「に」 and “de”「で」.

They are often confused with one another for a couple of fairly obvious reasons:

• Both can be used to define a place or location
• Both can be translated into English as “in”, “on” or “at”, depending on the situation

In most cases, however, the difference between these two particles is actually very simple. You just need a proper understanding of what they do.

In this article, I will use examples to show you the clear difference between “ni”「に」 and “de”「で」, and give you a few simple and practical rules you can apply to ensure you always choose the right one.

Desu: What it is, what it does, and when and how to use it

“Desu”「です」 is a tricky word.

It is one of the first words that most Japanese language students encounter, yet it is also one of the most misunderstood. Far too many people are mistakenly led to believe that it just makes a sentence polite, and although that is effectively all it does in some cases, it is so much more than that.

The truth is that much of the time, “desu” is actually a verb.

In simple terms, “desu” is the copula verb “to be” or “is”. It is the verb that links together two nouns, or a noun and an adjective, as being equal: A = B. Typically, this will be done using the pattern:

A wa B desu.

In polite Japanese, “desu” can almost always be interpreted this way, but it can be much more confusing once we deviate from simple polite sentences. This is because the informal equivalent of “desu” takes different forms depending on the situation.

To truly understand “desu”「です」, we need to take a close look at what role it plays in different situations.

Understanding the role of “desu”「です」 will make it much easier to determine when we should (and shouldn’t) use it, and in what form.

Perhaps more importantly, a proper understanding of “desu”「です」 will also give us a more complete picture of Japanese grammar and sentence structure as a whole.

In this article, I’m going to explore in depth the practical uses of “desu”「です」 and its underlying purpose in different situations.

By the end, you should have a fairly clear understanding of what “desu”「です」 is, when you should use it, and, perhaps most importantly, how it fits into the overall Japanese grammar system.

Japanese Pronunciation: A Detailed Guide (With Audio)