Breakdown of kare wa watashi no hikkoshi o tetsudatte kuremashita.
はwa
topic particle
私watashi
I
をo
direct object particle
のno
possessive case particle
Questions & Answers about kare wa watashi no hikkoshi o tetsudatte kuremashita.
What does 手伝ってくれました mean as a whole? Why isn’t it just 手伝いました?
手伝ってくれました is 手伝う in the -te form plus くれました.
- 手伝う = to help
- 手伝って = helping / help and...
- くれました = gave (to me / to us), but after a -te form it means did something for me/us
So 手伝ってくれました means:
- he helped me
- more literally: he did the favor of helping me
If you said 手伝いました, that would simply mean helped, without the extra nuance that the action was done for the speaker’s benefit.
Why is くれました used here instead of もらいました or あげました?
These verbs describe giving from different viewpoints.
- 〜てくれました = someone did something for me/us
- 〜てもらいました = I received the favor of someone doing something
- 〜てあげました = I did something for someone else
So:
- 彼は私の引っ越しを手伝ってくれました。
= He helped me with my move. - 私は彼に引っ越しを手伝ってもらいました。
= I had him help me with my move / I received his help.
They describe roughly the same event, but from different perspectives.
What role does は play after 彼?
