Asking People to Do Things for You
I was thinking about things I'd like to learn how to say in Japanese and I went down the path of "how would I navigate a game of Counter-Strike?". When I pondered what I would be saying I came up with:
- 1 mid
- please go up ramp
- will please drop me an xm
- someone boost me A
- 4 A
- please rotate
- nice shot
- woah
Not all of these are created equal but there is a recurring theme from some of them - asking people to do things. So I thought I would look up some of the ways to do this. This is has ties to the Commanding post but has some more polite variations.
Using -ください (Kudasai) to ask for things
ください is a word that sort of means please but it really just politely indicates that it is a request, usually for tangible objects or for actions. You can use it with most things, for example:
Nouns
To use ください with a noun you connect the noun to ください with the を particle, to make sentences such as:
- エーケーをください (Eekee o kudasai - Give me an AK please)
- 煙弾をください (Endan o kudasai - (reportedly) Give me a smoke bomb please)
- Aにさんにんをください (A ni san nin o kudasai - 3 people A please) (this one is actually not really correct because you don't ask for people like objects but I thought it was funny)
- You could also just use the quantity here, such as さんにんをください. Nin here is the counter for people. Again do not actually use this example.
The o is sometimes dropped in speech unless you are talking about a specific item instead of just an item. These sentences are all requests to be given an object, which makes sense as ください is the imperative1 (command form!!!) of the verb くださる which is the honorific version of the verb くれる, meaning "to give (to me)". It does not translate to this particularly literally though as ください can also be used with verbs and reading "give me you going" doesn't make any sense.
Verbs
Using the て-form (wow this one really keeps coming up) you can attach a verb to ください to make it a polite request for them to do that verb, for example:
- 行ってください (itte kudasai - please go)
- 殺してください (kuroshite kudasai - please kill)
- 生きてください (ikite kudasai - please stay alive)
- 死んでください (shinde kudasai - please die)
- 死なないでください (shinanai de kudasai - please don't die)
- This is the negative form of the verb, where you turn a verb into the 〜ない form and then add で. This is further reading but is a thing you can do and it is not て-form.
- Aに行ってください
- This uses the に particle to attach a place to the verb. This is also a blog posts worth of content.
〜ちょうだい (Choudai)
You can use this instead of ください I think wherever it is used (including for nouns) and it is just more casual. This is actually the one you would probably use if you wanted to be polite in a counter strike game (unlikely). If you are actually requesting a drop from a pal you would probably use the verb "落とす" in the て-form and say "エーケー落として".
〜てくださいませんか (kudasaimasen ka?)
Using this ending instead of just kudasai turns it from a polite instruction to formally asking them to do it, but this is quite a formal level and so might even be inappropriate for asking a teacher to do something. You wouldn't use this in a counter strike game unless you were playing with Smooya. This might be the end of the counter strike themed examples. Check tofugu for a bit more detail2. It also does not work with nouns in the same way that ください does.
Next week I might do a post on giving and receiving as there seems to be a wealth of content in that area.