Japanese with Manga

Asking to teach with 〜てもいい

Grammar Explanation: Permission to do with 〜てもいい

Manga panel from ご注文はうさぎですか？ showing example of Asking to teach with 〜てもいい.
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When Syaro is invited to study at the library with the others, she considers Rize may praise her for helping the others.

シャロ:
「そ　そんなに言(い)うなら教(おし)えてあげてもいいかなー」
“I-if you insist that much, maybe I could teach you if that's okay.”
Literal: “I-if you say it that much, I wonder if it is okay even if I teach you.”
ココア:
「そこまでは言(い)ってないよ！」
“I didn't say all that!”

Key Points

1てもいい softens the offer
  • 教えてあげる by itself can sound very direct or self-important.
  • 教えてあげてもいいかなー makes it more like “maybe I could teach you, if you insist.”
2教(おし)えてあげる means teaching as a favor
  • The base action is 教える, “to teach”.
  • あげる frames the teaching as something Sharo would do for someone else’s benefit.
3The receiver is left unstated
  • No 〜に phrase appears in the line.
  • The situation supplies the receiver: the people Sharo imagines helping at the library.
4そこまでは means “not that far”
  • まで marks the extent of what was said, and contrastive は rejects that stronger interpretation: “I didn’t say all that.”

Vocabulary

(To say)

言(い)う means to say or tell. It can also mean to call something by a particular name.

See Also

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