〜てあげる do for someone (favour): Meaning & Examples

How 〜てあげる works

妹に本を読んであげました is “I read my little sister a book.” Attach あげる to the て-form. It belongs to a three-verb family — あげる gives outward, くれる gives inward toward you, and もらう receives — and Japanese requires one of them whenever an action is a kindness rather than a bare event. The catch is that 〜てあげる can sound self-congratulatory, so it is used less freely than English “for you”.

構文こうぶんConstruction

• Verb (て-form) + あげる

  友だちに写真を送ってあげた。 — I sent my friend the photos.

• The person helped takes に

  子供に絵本を読んであげます。 — I read the children a picture book.

• Toward someone senior, swap to a humble verb instead of 〜てさしあげる

  先生に資料をお送りしました。 — I sent the documents to my teacher.

• Offering: 〜てあげようか / 〜てあげましょうか

  手伝ってあげようか。 — Shall I give you a hand?

例文れいぶんIn a sentence

注意点ちゅういてんNuances

• 荷物を持ってあげます is well-meant but lands as “I shall carry that for you”; 持ちましょうか is what a considerate speaker says.
• 〜てさしあげる looks like the polite version and is a trap: it draws attention to your own generosity toward someone senior. Use humble forms instead — お持ちします, ご案内します.
• The direction is fixed. An action done for YOU can never be 〜てあげる — that is 〜てくれる, and mixing them up is one of the most noticeable learner errors.
• For animals, plants and children the pattern is completely natural and carries no awkwardness: 犬を散歩に連れて行ってあげた.

練習れんしゅうYour Turn

Tip

Describe three kind things you did for other people this week with 〜てあげました. Then rewrite one of them as an offer to the person’s face — and notice why 〜ましょうか sounds better than 〜てあげましょうか.

〜てあげる (do for someone (favour)) in real sentences

Each one is quoted from a published Japanese text in this library and links to the story it came from. Some use older spellings, or break off where the sentence carried on. They are transcribed exactly as their authors wrote them.

Appears in 15 of 367 texts in our library.