"このおさいふは母にもらいました。"
Translation:I got this wallet from my mother.
67 Comments
もらう means to receive from. To give to some in your family, the verb is あげる ie 母に財布をあげる
The confusing bit is that ni and kara are usually opposites as "to" and "from", but they both denote the donor when they stand with morau.
Darn it, Japanese, just when I think I've made progress, you go and throw a curveball like this.
に can be used almost everywhere. Because this sentence is strictly ''from my mother'' that is the reason behind the ni.
I think it has something to do with that に, but I'm not sure exactly what it means in this context.
When I translate the sentence starting from the end, the meaning is clear for me.
Something を 母にもらいました
The complete form = Something を 私が 母に もらいました
Let's simplify this into a formula, A が B に もらいました
therefore, A received from B.
If A or B is 私, it can be omitted including the attached particle.
In the wallet sentence, since A が is omitted, it is implied that "I" received the wallet. Of course you could change A into siblings, sisters, brothers, other people that received the wallet.
Now if you want to say 母 is the one receiving from 私, just swap them around, by saying 母が もらいました [ 私に is omitted ]
Finally, the rules for あげる and くれる are slightly different yet confusing however.
The rules with あげる and くれる aren't that much more confusing, just a few more extra points to consider before using compared to もらう. They both just mean "to give" with no connotation of receiving in the sense of もらう, but あげる is for you or someone in your group, and くれる for someone who isn't you or in your group.
私はあの人にお金をあげました。(I gave that person money)
あの人は私にお金をくれました。(That person gave me money)
If there is any challenge, it would be deciding who falls inside your group and who doesn't. I suppose whether you use あげる or くれる is based on whether the giver is more similar to you than the receiver or not. That is all dependent on our favorite c word.
I love hearing your reassurance this is legit from a japanese speaker. And so polite!
It seems like the lessons are differentiating from a person (に) and from an inanimate (から) object. Is that what's going on or am I just seeing things?
Kara is more meaning in a direction from, describing where a move started. If you got something from a vending machine you'd still use ni.
Would you say this if you received the wallet from your mother after she threw it to you?: 「このおさいふは母からもらいました」
I used "My Mom gave me this wallet" Hot it wrong. I think the app needs more degrees of gramatic freedom.
The meaning of もらう is very much "receive" - in your translation the appropriate verb would be くれる - to give, when used to give things to the speaker. Compare with あげる to give, but from the speaker instead. There are some more subtle uses but that's the gist.
Report it, if you think it should be accepted. Because the tree is new, they need us to send things in. There are many ways to say things, and they can't possibly predict them all. With this one, though, I believe the wallet is technically the subject. So I'm not sure if it would be accepted or not.
Just so we are clear, the grammatical subject of this sentence is わたし(as implied by the verb receive, (my)mom, and the particle ni), and the topic is 財布(さいふ). In this case, "My mom gave me this wallet" would not be an accurate translation.
199
Nope, the wallet is the object. It's what the speaker (subject of the sentence) received - wallet is the direct object of the verb もらう
- 199
It doesn't need more degrees of freedom. The Japanese doesn't say - My mum gave me this wallet. That's why your answer was deemed incorrect.
I think this sentence is a good example of using the honorific お/ご. Most of the time in this course, you see it in cases where the item it's attached to belongs to someone else, but here, the item it's attached to belongs to the speaker. This is because, even though the speaker owns the wallet at the moment, it was selected and given by someone else (the speaker's mother) and and due to that, speaking well of the item reflects well on the person who gave it.
If "mother" is used as a proper noun (without an article), it should generally be capitalized - but more importantly, using "Mother" as a proper noun sounds a bit stiff/awkward rather than informal.
Why is に used here? I though it more or less meant 'to' or in the direction of. Wouldn't something like から be more appropriate?
- 199
Certain verbs "take" certain particles eg. が often goes with potential verbs potential forms of verbs like できる、話せる etc. Here もらう and に work very similarly to how passive voice verbs work. The subject is marked by は or が and に shows the means by which you received something, in this instance the speaker received the wallet by way of their mother. In this instance にis not showing direction, so something is to or for, a specific day or time, or purpose えいがを見に行きました (I went to watch a movie - or for the purpose of watching a movie). Here に shows the means by which something was received or the person by whom or from whom something was received - it is loosely translated as by or from but from is more natural in English. に tells us who helped facilitate the action. Hope this helps/makes/sense.
I sometimes see お put in front of words. Is that something to an object of more value or more formal?
Yeah, it's indicating respect for that thing by being a bit more formal.
I recieved this purse from my mom got checked wrong. it's literally the same as I got the wallet from my mother. reported.
Since the subject is the wallet I would have translated it "This wallet was given to me by my mother". I've already reported it.
- 199
You're making the verb passive. Actually you're taking a completely different verb - give (もらうmeans to receive) and making it passive to boot. Also the wallet is not the subject. The speaker (I) is.
How would I indicate that my mother received the wallet? Would that just entail changing に to が?
why do we specifically need to say "my mother" instead of just "mother"? I assume that that it would be the same thing tbh
- 199
母 is only ever used for one's own mother. You would never use it for someone else's mother. It could only ever be translated as meaning one's own mother.
- 918
What if i used から instead of に? Would the sentence still be the same? Or do i use に because a verb follows?
Getting real tired of having to translate from japanese, into english, then into american english.
Id like to know why the wallet has the honourific o? Its hit and miss apparently with what receives it. Plates do, forks dont. Is that because fork is katakana? What is it that determines the o
- 199
No. That is not what the Japanese is saying. Got/received is a completely different verb from gave. Please see my comment/explanation below.
The お is an honorific, indicating respect for the wallet. A comment further up mentions how in this case it's really showing respect to the mother who gave it to you.
- 199
No, もらう although an active verb in appearance works rather like a Japanese passive verb. I think I've explained it here somewhere on this thread.
- 261
I said "This wallet is from my mother." - is there a way this is grammatically different? Usually I understand why the translation could be taken another way, but aside from thinking the person somehow stole the wallet, I don't see how this could be meant any differently than that she gave it to me.
I think what's tripping folks up here is that "My mother gave this to me," "I got this from my mom," "I received this from my mother," and "My mom got this for me" all mean pretty much the same thing: "Something was given to me by my mother." In both English and in Japanese, they are practically interchangable. When I see もらう or くれる, I'm not really seeing much of a difference overall. But since もらう is used here, our answer must have 'receive(d)' in it.
- 199
They are not interchangeable because they don't mean the same thing in English or Japanese. Do you say I received presents to my brother for his birthday - meaning 'gave'? No. Because if you receive something someone is giving something to you. You also wouldn't say I gave presents from my brother for my birthday - meaning 'I received'. You received presents from your brother. Give and receive do not mean the same thing in either language, they are not synonyms, they are not interchangeable. One last example - I received a large sum of money and I gave a large sum of money clearly not mean the same thing. In the first one you are saying that you inherited money, won the lottery or a cash prize in a competition, got your tax refund or you simply were given money. In the latter you are saying that you donated money - you actively gave it away.
