Morau Explained | Master Japanese Give & Receive Verbs (Ageru vs Kureru vs Morau)

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Okay, so we've got giving out with ageru and giving in with kureru.

[00:00:05]But what if you want to talk about it differently? What if the most important part of the story isn't who gave it, but who got it?

[00:00:12]Well, that's where our third verb, morau, comes into play.

[00:00:15]Now, what's so cool about morau is that it's a bit of a game changer. It means to receive, so it completely flips the whole perspective. Instead of focusing on the giver, the main subject of the sentence is now the person who actually received the item. The focus is all on the act of receiving.

[00:00:30]And you can see that flip right there in the grammar. The sentence doesn't start with the giver anymore, it starts with the recipient. The giver is now marked with ni or kara, which basically means from. The star of the show is now the person who got the thing.

[00:00:43]Okay, get ready because this is where it all clicks into place.

[00:00:47]Remember that sentence I told you to keep in mind? My father gave me a bag.

[00:00:52]Using kureru on the left, the focus on my father, the giver. But look what happens on the right. We can talk about the exact same event using morau.

[00:01:01]Watashi wa chichi ni kara kabano morai mashita. I received a bag from my father. The situation is exactly the same, but the focus of the sentence has completely shifted from the giver to the receiver.

[00:01:13]All right, so you've got the three main ideas. Giving out, giving in, and focusing on receiving. Let's run through a couple of quick examples just to make sure it's all locked in. Okay, you're up. How would you say this sentence? My friend gave me a notebook. Think about that direction. Who's giving? Who's receiving? Which way is the action flowing? If you said kureru, you were absolutely right. The friend is the out group, and they're giving something to me, the center of the in group. The action is flowing inward, so the sentence has to be tomodachi wa watashi ni noto kure mashita.

[00:01:49]Nice work. Let's try one more. How about this one? I received a letter from Ken.

[00:01:55]Now, what's the keyword there? What's the main action, and who is the subject of the sentence?

[00:02:01]The focus is clearly on the act of receiving, and the subject is I. And that's your signal to use morau. The sentence becomes watashi wa Ken san ni kara tegami o morai mashita. I am the one doing the receiving, so morau is the perfect fit.

[00:02:18]So, there you have it. A puzzle is solved. In Japanese, giving isn't just a simple physical action, it's tied to perspective, to your social circle, to your point of view. It's not just what you say, but how you see the world. And that leaves us with one final thought.

[00:02:33]Now that you see giving is all about perspective, what else in the Japanese language might be, too?