Verb[て]
Meanings
- Casual request for someone to do something
- Ask someone to perform an action for you in a casual tone
- Imperative-like use of the て-form in friendly speech
About this pattern
Explanation
The て-form of a verb can be used in casual speech to ask someone to do something for you. This is a direct, familiar way to request an action, usually among friends, family, or people of the same age/status. It sounds abrupt if used with strangers or in formal situations, so it often carries a sense of closeness or casual expectation. To soften a request in more formal contexts, you would use てください or てくださ(い). In casual speech, you can simply drop the ending politeness and use the て-form alone when the listener is understood to help or act.
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Example sentences
Please tidy this up.
Just watch over it for a moment.
Show me the documents by tomorrow.
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More N4 patterns
Or something; Any... (with question words); No matter (who)
View detailseasy to (do); likely to (happen); easy to be affected by
View detailsDifficult to; Hard to; Not easy to do something
View detailsGradually; Little by little; Step by step
View detailsmore and more; rapidly; increasing quickly; progressively
View detailsWe/They/You all (plural forms); These/Those (plural demonstratives); Plural suffix for certain pronouns and demonstratives
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