Ok so i so believe that te-ageru is used wholesomely to say you do something for someone like if you buy your little sister a candy for her ok i get it. But the other two have the same meaning: to ask or request a favor from someone. I’m so confused by these two like why not use one then? And don’t even get me started on te-moraeru … 😭
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てあげる and てくれる mean the same, do a favor (without て they mean to give, and they are also used indistinctly). てもらう means to receive a favor (without て means to receive).
てもらえる is just the potential form of てもらう(can receive a favor)
I also know てあげる and てくれる sentences had a distinct order each for who gives and who receives, but rn I can’t really remember how they were meant to be structured.
te-ageru: You give something to someone else, talking from your perspective.
te-kureru: You are given something, talking from the giver’s perspective.
te-morau: You are given something, talking from your perspective.
[giver] は / が [receiver] に [favor] てあげる
[giver] が [favor] てくれる (you are the receiver)
[receiver] は / が [giver] に [favor] てもらう
Others have already given you great replies, just wanted to add Japanese Ammo with Misa has an amazing lesson on these 3 on yt, cant recommend her enough
A visual reference helped me a lot.
https://lingo-apps.com/www/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ageru-kureru-1-1024×700.png
A note about why these three verbs exists. It’s about culture for one, and the other use is to distinguish receiver and giver when the subject isn’t mentioned at all.
One thing nobody has mentioned is that with てもらう, it almost always means that you requested that someone else do something. So 姉に手伝ってもらった is like “I asked my older sister to help”/”I got my older sister to help”.
(This is not true of regular もらう, just the てもらう version.)
Tokini andy covers that well in his Genki videos. It is Genki lesson 12. You don’t need the book to follow his explanation
See if [Cure Dolly’s explanation](https://youtu.be/CESFJaFp8FI) helps (turn on subtitles).
The usage with て is similar to without so you can focus on the difference without て for a moment.
あげる -> give
くれる -> give
These mean the same thing and are used the same way. The speaker must say くれる instead of あげる when the action is directed towards him or someone in his in-group. That is the only distinction.
もらう -> receive
This one is different from the other two.
They are used like “give” and “receive” are used in English.
TomがJohnにpresentをあげた
Tom gave John a present.
TomがJohnからpresentをもらった
Tom received a present from John.