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SethClydesdale / genki-study-resources

A collection of exercises for practicing what is taught in Genki: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese.
https://sethclydesdale.github.io/genki-study-resources/lessons-3rd/
MIT License
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"a watch I got from my girlfriend" translated into Japanese #64

Closed kwakkles closed 4 years ago

kwakkles commented 4 years ago

Page 89, IV-A, question # 3 at https://sethclydesdale.github.io/genki-study-resources/lessons/lesson-15/grammar-5/

"a watch I got from my girlfriend" is asked to be translated into Japanese.

The answer options:

彼女がくれた時計 彼女があげた時計 彼女にもらった時計

All three answers mean "a watch I got from my girlfriend", so there is no wrong answer here, let alone two wrong answers. For this content, you don't have to necessarily change any of it. It's actually neat to know how to say it in three different ways. Upon your web site grading it at the end, though, don't mark any answer as wrong - just color them all in the light blue coloring which means correct.

SethClydesdale commented 4 years ago

Hello @kwakkles,

Ah, the reason it's like this is because that is the only answer noted in the answer key.

With あげる and くれる the subject of the sentence is the giver, however, with もらう the subject of the sentence is the recipient. So I'm assuming in this instance, もらう is most likely used, because the subject of the sentence (you) is supposed to identify more closely with the receiving end. That is, the watch, is a gift you received (or "got") from your girlfriend.

Each could roughly be translated to.. 彼女がくれた時計 a watch my girlfriend gave me. 彼女があげた時計 a watch girlfriend gave.. her boyfriend? (It would be kinda weird to use あげる this way, since the speaker -- the girlfriend -- probably wouldn't refer to herself as such.. would most likely use 彼にあげた時計, but don't quote me on this) 彼女にもらった時計 a watch I got from my girlfriend.

I think in terms of "{ITEM} I got/received from {GIVER}", もらう would be used. In contrast, if it's "{ITEM} {GIVER} gave me", くれる would be used instead.

kwakkles commented 4 years ago

The contrast between right and wrong for this answer selection is between the exact words of 'give' and 'receive' . It is cloaked in the less formal word 'got' that the Genki authors used in the question content. This small three-letter word 'got' majorly threw me off because it is broadly used in American English.

Thanks for the thorough explanation you provided.

SethClydesdale commented 4 years ago

No problem. Indeed, it can be a bit confusing, and if I recall this also threw me off when I was first studying -- so much so, I had to go back and re-read the section on the giving verbs. Overall, the trick to figuring it out tends to lie more in who the subject of the sentence is. If you can find that, it becomes much easier to determine if もらう or くれる should be used.