Please — ～てください

In this episode, the te-form you met in episode 39 gets its first real job: making polite requests. Take any verb in te-form, add ください at the end, and you have a complete, natural way to say "please do this" in Japanese — usable with friends, strangers, servers, anyone.

What You'll Learn#

• ～てください — polite requests: te-form verb + ください = "please do X"
• Why ください literally means "give me" — and how that changes how the form feels
• When to use this form (spoiler: almost everywhere)
• Four real examples from te-forms you already know

Grammar Point: ～てください#

The structure is always:

[te-form verb] + ください

Episode Sentences#

食べてください

見てください

ちょっと待ってください

ドアを開けてください

頑張ってください

This one reaches beyond the literal. Grammatically it's te-form plus ください, but culturally it's warm encouragement — what you say before someone's exam, job interview, or big day.

ここに来てください

The Literal Reading#

Miki's linguistics-nerd moment: ください comes from a verb that means to give — in the direction of "give to me." So every てください request is literally asking the other person to give you the action.

食べてください = "give me the eating" (please eat)

This framing makes Japanese requests feel fundamentally different from English commands. You're not ordering — you're asking someone to offer you their action. That social feeling is baked into the grammar itself.

Tone Note#

てください is polite but not stiff. You use it with:

• Friends: 待ってください (wait up)
• Strangers on the street: すみません、ちょっと待ってください (excuse me, please wait a moment)
• Servers at restaurants: 水をください (please give me water)
• Anyone, anywhere you need a small request without being demanding

It's the default everyday register for asking someone to do something.

Related Grammar#

• Te-form basics — the connector form that てください is built on (Episode 39)
• ～ている — the te-form's second job (Episode 41)
• Polite verb forms ～ます — the ます-form family (Episode 16)

Practice#

Ready to use てください in real sentences? Practice with the full sentence database on JIVX.