Borrowing, Lending, and Remembering: Verb Pairs in a Correction Diary
Yuki keeps a Japanese diary that her language-exchange partner, Sato, corrects every Friday. Last week she lost points on three sentences because she had translated each English verb with only one Japanese word. The marked sentences are: (A) 「わたしの辞書は今、佐藤さんの机の上にあります。昨日、佐藤さんに辞書を＿＿ました。」 (B) 「母は先月から病気でしたが、薬を飲んで、もう＿＿ました。」 (C) 「佐藤さんの電話番号がどうしても＿＿ません。手帳を見ても、書いてありません。」 In the margin Sato wrote two candidates for each blank: A 借りました／貸しました, B 直りました／治りました, C 覚えません／思い出せません. Yuki must choose one per blank and write one reason for each choice. Sato also asked her to explain why 「貸してあげます」 sounded odd in another sentence.
1. Choose the correct verb for blanks A, B, and C, and name the single clue in the setup that decides each one.
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A: 貸しました. The book is described as わたしの辞書 and it is now on Sato's desk, so the speaker gave it out. 借りる would mean the speaker received it, which would put the book on the speaker's desk.
B: 治りました. The subject is 母 and the cause is illness plus medicine; 治る is used for recovery from illness. 直る belongs to machines or mistakes.
C: 思い出せません. The number is not written in the notebook, so the speaker cannot retrieve it; どうしても calls for the potential form. 覚えません would mean she is deliberately not memorizing it, which does not fit the situation.
2. Yuki writes 「佐藤さんに辞書を貸してあげます」. Sato marks it unnatural. Explain the problem using who receives the benefit, and give a natural alternative.
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てあげる presents the action as a favor done for the other person, and when the speaker is the giver it can sound patronizing, as if the listener owes thanks. A plain 貸します is normal for this situation. Direction of benefit decides the form: if Sato lends to Yuki, Yuki receives, so Japanese uses 貸してくれます or 貸してもらいます. The verb stem stays the same; only the auxiliary changes the viewpoint, so translating 「lend」 word-for-word is what caused the error.
3. Later Yuki says 「佐藤さんの誕生日を思い出しました」. Is this the right choice? Explain 覚える versus 思い出す using the diary situation.
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Yes. 思い出す means bringing back something already known but temporarily forgotten, which matches a birthday that slipped her mind and then came back. 覚える means storing new information in memory for the first time. Compare blank C: there she was trying to retrieve a number and could not, so 思い出せません. If she had just been told the birthday and was memorizing it, 覚えました would be correct. The deciding question is whether the information is being stored or retrieved.