Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 7: 3/18

～てもらう

To get someone to do, To have someone do

Structure

Verb［て］+ もらう

Politeness Levels

Details

  • Register

    Polite

  • 使用域

    敬語

Rare Kanji

貰う

About てもらう

Being slightly more direct than てくれる, てもらう removes the meaning of 'to bestow' (to the speaker), and focuses on the meaning of 'to receive' (from the giver). With てもらう, に will mark the person that 'did something' for the subject, while が (or は) will highlight the receiver themselves.
In English, this grammar structure is regularly translated as 'to have (someone) do (A) for you', or 'to get (someone) to do (A) for you'. Literally, it means 'to receive the action of (A)'.
  • 日本語(にほんご)が話(はな)せないから友達(ともだち)に行(い)き方(かた)を聞(き)いてもらう。
    Because I can't speak Japanese, I'm going to have my friend ask for directions on my behalf.
  • 私(わたし)は虫(むし)が嫌(きら)いなので妻(つま)に虫(むし)を捕(と)ってもらう。
    Since I hate bugs, I get my wife to catch them (for me).
てもらう is also regularly used when receiving a service from someone, as てくれる would imply that the action was a favor.
  • 昨日(きのう)は朝(あさ)から頭(あたま)が痛(いた)かったから医者(いしゃ)に見(み)てもらった。
    Because my head hurt since the morning yesterday, I had a doctor look at it.
  • 朝(あさ)から頭(あたま)が痛(いた)かったから病院(びょういん)に行(い)って、医者(いしゃ)に見(み)てくれた。
    Because I had a headache since this morning, I went to the doctor and he checked it out for me.

Examples

  • 私(わたし)は母(はは)に宿題(しゅくだい)をしてもらった。

    I had my mom do my homework.

  • クリスマスに犬(いぬ)を買(か)ってもらうかもしれない。

    I might have (someone) buy me a dog for Christmas.

  • この仕事(しごと)を手伝(てつだ)ってもらう。

    I will get someone to help with this work.

  • ユカは誰(だれ)かに手伝(てつだ)ってもらったかもしれない。

    Yuka might have gotten someone to help her.

  • 雑誌(ざっし)にあった漢字(かんじ)の読(よ)み方(かた)が分(わ)からなかったので、ネイティブに読(よ)んでもらう。

    I did not understand the reading of a kanji in a magazine, so I will have a native read it for me.

  • Get more example sentences!

    Premium users get access to 12 example sentences on all Grammar Points.

Self-Study Sentences

Study your own way!

Add sentences and study them alongside Bunpro sentences.

てもらう – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (23 in total)

  • Yumari-1

    Yumari-1

    If I posted in these grammar threads every time I have a question I would already have over ~100 posts likely They seem desolate unfortunately, with questions left unanswered or people coming years later and expressing the same difficulties.

    Also staff seems to be tired with my bug reports as they were getting responses initially and things were getting changed if needbe, but now they’re all left alone And I don’t think I have a lot of them, only 5-6 actually over 2-3 months…

    But anyway, here I also have trouble parsing 「雨が降りそうだから、傘を持って行ってもらってね。」
    First of all, I don’t see a way to magically infer その人たちに or such without any further context. Google even sees this as “It looks like it’s going to rain, so please bring an umbrella with y...

  • nekoyama

    nekoyama

    The speaker (A) asks someone else (B) to もらう the action of 傘を持って行く (to bring/take an umbrella) from some unknown party that’s definitely not B, and very likely not A. Therefore there should be someone else who is not mentioned explicitly and who is supposed to take an umbrella with them. (Or multiple people, of course.)

  • Yumari-1

    Yumari-1

    Thanks a bunch for this explanation, it actually cleared up lots of confusion for me. The stacking of constructs to basically from

    The speaker (A) asks someone else (B) to もらう the action of 傘を持って行く

    can be kind of daunting, but it helps to dig into these kinds of sentences for later stages of learni...

Got questions about てもらう? Join us to discuss, ask, and learn together!

Join the Discussion