Japanese is hard.

I'm having a difficult time understanding ageru, kureru, and morau. I learned these two years ago, or at least I thought I did. Then I came here and all my classes have been messing with my brain.

Ageru means "to give." You can only use it when you are giving something to someone else, or when a third party is giving something to another third party who is not within your "inner circle." Also, you can't use this word in question sentences, except for when you can.

Kureru means "to receive." Kureru can also be used as a substitute for ageru if needed. According to a website: "kureru is restricted to sentences in which the subject is anyone except the speaker (I), and the receiver is the speaker (I) or a person of the speaker’s in-group (family members, colleagues)." From my textbook: "Kureru is possible only in limited contexts in which you think you yourself have benefited because somebody very close to you has received something." That clears things up doesn't it.

Morau also means "to receive" or "to be given." The textbook elaborates, "it is basically interchangable with kureru except that it 'implies that you identify yourself more closely with the recipient than with the giver. Thus it is wrong to use morau if you receive from me.'" It also cannot be used regarding presents received from Santa, while swimming, or if the speaker is a sock puppet and its in-group consists of other sock puppets.

I've spent way too much time on this blog. I should be studying.