Asking someone to do something in Japanese

Level A1

Asking someone to do something in Japanese

By the end of this lesson you can ask someone to do something in Japanese and follow short instructions. The central idea fits in one sentence: ください (kudasai) after a thing asks for the thing; after a verb's て form, it asks for the action. So 水をください (mizu o kudasai) is "water, please", and 水を飲んでください (mizu o nonde kudasai) is "please drink some water".

A quick warm-up: actions and asking for things

Here is what you'll reuse, even if this is the first time you've seen it. 水 (mizu) is water, ご飯 (gohan) is cooked rice or a meal, and を (o) comes right after the thing. 水を飲みます (mizu o nomimasu) is "I drink water" and ご飯を食べます (gohan o tabemasu) is "I eat rice": the verb closes the sentence, and ます is the polite ending. The third line, 水をください, does something else: it asks someone to give you water.

Two new items: どうぞ and てください

どうぞ (dōzo) goes with an offer: it's the "go ahead" you say when offering something or letting someone go first. てください (te kudasai) is the ending that asks for an action: it joins the verb, as you'll see shortly. With some verbs, this て shows up as で.

Model: at the table in someone's home

Listen once without reading. A host offers food and tea to a guest. She says 食べてください (tabete kudasai), "please eat", and お茶を飲んでください (ocha o nonde kudasai), "please have some tea": both times, the guest is the one who acts. ありがとうございます (arigatō gozaimasu) is "thank you". The guest would rather have water and asks for the thing with 水をください; すみません (sumimasen) softens the change. はい、どうぞ (hai, dōzo) is the "here you are" of someone handing over the water.

Two changes: 食べます and 飲みます

The て form is the form of the verb that joins ください. For now you only need two, and each takes its own path.

食べます → 食べて: remove ます and add て. That gives 食べてください (tabete kudasai).

飲みます → 飲んで: remove みます and add んで. That gives 飲んでください (nonde kudasai). 飲みて doesn't exist.

Keep these two as ready-made forms. The path changes from verb to verb, so the recipe for 食べます doesn't work for all of them. The で in 飲んで is part of the verb, not a separate particle.

Asking for an action: 水を飲んでください

The thing and を stay where they were; only the end changes: 水を飲みます becomes 水を飲んでください. Swap the slots and keep what makes sense: 水 (mizu), お茶 (ocha, tea) and コーヒー (kōhī, coffee) with 飲んで; ご飯 (gohan) and パン (pan, bread) with 食べて; これ (kore), "this", works with both verbs. When the thing is already clear, just say 食べてください.

English "please" can go at the start or the end of a request, and the English command has no subject. Japanese doesn't need "you" either, but ください stays at the end, right after the verb.

てください is polite, but it tells the person what to do, like a command with "please". That's why it comes naturally to a host, a doctor, a teacher or a clerk explaining a procedure. To ask a favor of a boss, Japanese speakers tend to prefer softer forms, which come later.

水を飲んでください。

ください with a thing or with an action

Compare the lines two by two. 水をください: the listener gives you water. 水を飲んでください: the listener drinks the water. これをください (kore o kudasai) asks for this for you; これを食べてください (kore o tabete kudasai) asks the person to eat it. The difference lies in what comes before ください: a thing or a verb's て form. The ます form doesn't go in that spot: 飲みますください doesn't exist.

Just to recognize: short instructions

These four sentences are for recognizing, with no rush to use them. When you hear ください at the end, listen to what comes just before it. A form ending in て or で shows that the request is about an action; without one, as in 水をください or これをひとつください (kore o hitotsu kudasai), "one of these, please", the request is usually for a thing.

待ってください (matte kudasai) is "please wait"; 来てください (kite kudasai), "please come"; これを見てください (kore o mite kudasai), "please look at this"; もう一度言ってください (mō ichido itte kudasai), "please say that again", with the もう一度 (mō ichido) you use to ask for a repeat. If you catch only the verb, you already know what to do.

For reference: the て form of other verbs

This table isn't for memorizing: look it up when you meet one of these verbs. It has no audio, and the kana reading is in parentheses. In table order, the て forms are 待って (matte), wait; 来て (kite), come; 見て (mite), look; 言って (itte), say; 行って (itte), go; 聞いて (kiite), listen; 書いて (kaite), write; 読んで (yonde), read; 話して (hanashite), speak; して (shite), do. 来ます, 見ます, 話します and します follow the path of 食べます; 読みます follows that of 飲みます; the others change in a different way.

ます formて form
待ちます（まちます）待って（まって）
来ます（きます）来て（きて）
見ます（みます）見て（みて）
言います（いいます）言って（いって）
行きます（いきます）行って（いって）
聞きます（ききます）聞いて（きいて）
書きます（かきます）書いて（かいて）
読みます（よみます）読んで（よんで）
話します（はなします）話して（はなして）
しますして

Your turn, and the summary

You have a visitor at home. Say each sentence out loud before looking at the matching line below. First, offer the food with どうぞ and ask your visitor to eat. Then ask your visitor to have some tea. Next, point at a dish near you and ask them to eat it. Finally, the scene changes: at a café, you're the one who wants water. Ask for it.

In short: thing + を + ください asks for the thing; て form + ください asks for the action, with the thing and を in front when you need them. 食べます becomes 食べて, and 飲みます becomes 飲んで.

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