310 CHAPTER 6. LANGUAGE PATTERNS
So with that covered, a few examples of giving:”(I) bought flowers for Kimiko.””I threw the garbage away for my mother.””(I) gave my friend a really interesting book for (his) birthday.”You may have noticed that all the parts of these sentences that trans-
late to ”for ...” have been marked with the particle. As mentioned in
the section on verb particles in the chapter on basic grammar, this kind of
prepositional phrase is simply treated as a verb detail in Japanese, and as
such is marked with. You may have also noticed that in the last sen-
tence, was used on its own: when used alone, it strictly means
”give”. When used in + + for, it typically means ”doing
... for (someone)”.
In cases of severe difference in status, such as a maid serving dinner
for a household, or a clerk handing a CEO a report, is not enough.
The more formal must be used. However, as you are unlikely
to find yourself in a situation warranting this verb, (for actual gifts)
and + + (for actions) should be all you need.
Before we move on, the previous example sentences may have cre-
ated a wrong impression concerning who can do the giving when using
this verb. As mentioned, this concerns giving from first to second, second
to third, and first to third person, so in fact all the following translations
are correct (in the absence of some disambiguating context):
”I gave my friend a really interesting book for his birthday.”
”We gave our friends really interesting books for their birthdays.”
”You gave my friend a really interesting book for his birthday.”
”You gave your friend a really interesting book for his birthday.”
”I gave your friends really interesting books for their birthdays.”
etc. etc. etc.The variations are quite numerous, but usually sentences such as
these will be used in a seĴing where it is relatively easy to determine which