# Compound imperative



## tkekte

Hi. 

I was curious how to say compound requests in Japanese.

f.ex.: "_go buy_ some juice", "let's _go see_ the movie".

Actually I can't think of any other verb that can be stacked like that, except "go". Oddly, exactly the same construct also exists in Hebrew and Russian. In Russian you can stack up a few other verbs of motion (like "run", "travel by a train" etc) but the idea is the same.

I was wondering if such a thing exists in Japanese. Thanks!


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## xiaolijie

ジュースを買いに行って来て（ください）　（go buy some juice）　
（あの)映画を見に行こう　（let's go see the movie）


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## cheshire

はしごを登って来い！　Hashigo wo nobotte koi! Go up the ladder!
はしごを下って行け！　Hashigo wo kudatte ike! Ｇｏ down the ladder!
ご飯を食べて来なさい。Ｇｏｈａｎ wo tabete kinasai. Have lunch/supper/dinner/breakfast, etc. and come.
ご飯を食べて来た？ Did you come after eating lunch/supper, etc.


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## tkekte

Thanks.  Congrats with the new avatar, cheshire.



			
				xiaolijie said:
			
		

> ジュースを買い行って来て


Why do you need both iku and kuru? Isn't just one enough?  (I don't understand this.)



			
				cheshire said:
			
		

> ご飯を食べて来なさい。Gohan wo tabete kinasai. Have lunch/supper/dinner/breakfast, etc. and come.


Just to be sure... first eat dinner, and then come? Or come _to_ eat dinner? From your words, it seems like it's the former, but the latter makes more sense to me. Else I don't understand how "hashigo wo nobotte koi" can mean "come up the ladder". 

Kinasai is just a polite version of koi, right? So why doesn't it translate to "go up the ladder and come"? (The way you translated it with the gohan example) Or maybe it was supposed to be "come to eat dinner" after all? 

Or maybe the -te form in the ladder case isn't about and-ing verbs, but just to make the imperative, and then the "koi" is just an intensifier? So it's like "Get up the ladder! Go!"

*confused* 

Sorry if my questions are stupid. I just want to understand this properly.


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## Flaminius

Regarding ご飯を食べて来なさい:


tkekte said:


> Just to be sure... first eat dinner, and then come? Or come _to_ eat dinner?


*Cheshire*'s English gloss is very literal and if I am to do a more liberal translation, it means, "Have a meal elsewhere and come back later."  



> Else I don't understand how "hashigo wo nobotte koi" can mean "come up the ladder".


This sentence means what you said because it conceives climbing the ladder a prior condition for coming up to the place where the speaker is (alternatively, the _te_-form may be marking the means or method with which coming is achieved).  Whatever the function of the _te_-form may be, the action is supposed to take place before the imperative verb.

The same anterior-posterior relationship holds true for ご飯を食べて来なさい.  Having a meal is to take place before the listener should come to the speaker's place.  A typical context for the sentence is a teacher gives leave to the student so she can dine out.  But eventually she has to come back because they will have another class in the afternoon.


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## tkekte

Ah, I understand now. So it's first eating, and then coming.  I was speaking about a different thing though. "Come eat dinner" = come here to eat dinner. In this case, first you need to come, and then you will begin eating. (I'm guessting this would be some kind of construct using _-ni_, but I don't know which verb forms to choose.)

Also, from what you said about the ladder...

"はしごを下って行け" -- I guess this means that the speaker is currently located near the listener and wants him to move away from him. But if the speaker was on the floor, then he would say はしごを下って来い. Right?  And if he's on the floor and wants the other person to go up, would he say はしごを登って行け?

And then...


> ジュースを買いに行って来て


Does this actually mean "go buy some juice _and then come back_"? (Which is important, we wouldn't want him to buy juice and then drink it all alone. )


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## Flaminius

tkekte said:


> "Come eat dinner" = come here to eat dinner. (...)  (I'm guessting this would be some kind of construct using _-ni_, but I don't know which verb forms to choose.)


ご飯を食べ*に*来なさい  



> "はしごを下って行け" -- I guess this means that the speaker is currently located near the listener and wants him to move away from him. But if the speaker was on the floor, then he would say はしごを下って来い. Right?  And if he's on the floor and wants the other person to go up, would he say はしごを登って行け?


 Affirmative to all your questions.



> Does [ジュースを買いに行って来て] actually mean "go buy some juice _and then come back_"? (Which is important, we wouldn't want him to buy juice and then drink it all alone. )


Yes it does.  I find, however, it a bit clumsy.  Not that I never hear it but 買ってきて is sufficient.


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## tkekte

Thank you!


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## xiaolijie

tkekte said:
			
		

> Does [ジュースを買いに行って来て] actually mean "go buy some juice _and then come back_"?)


Tkekte, although we don't attach "_and then come back_" to this kind of structures in English, the "来る"　element is important in the Japanese equivalent. Have a look at the examples in post #3 and you'll see what I mean. If you're learning Japanese, I think it'll be good for you to get used to saying "_do (something) and come back_" (in Japanese) instead of "_go and do (something)_" (as in English).



			
				Flaminius said:
			
		

> Yes it does. I find, however, it a bit clumsy. Not that I never hear it but 買ってきて is sufficient.


The OP asked for a translation of "_go buy_ some juice" and without further context, I thought it would be helpful to learners to be as explicit as possible and included "行って" in the translation, which is the standard approach. So we obviously think differently there.  xxx


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## cheshire

> ジュースを買いに行って来て


There's nothing wrong with this sentence, but 行って itself implicitly covers the meaning of "to go and come [or "fetch"]". 





> "はしごを下って行け" -- I guess this means that the speaker is currently located near the listener and wants him to move away from him. But if the speaker was on the floor, then he would say はしごを下って来い. Right?  And if he's on the floor and wants the other person to go up, would he say はしごを登って行け?


Yes, it's just the same way as in German, Chinese and others.





> Kinasai is just a polite version of koi, right? So why doesn't it translate to "go up the ladder and come"?


Yes, it could mean that. It could mean either. That's another ambiguity of Japanese.

[VERB1] [VERB2]

This struction calls for the verb1 taking place before verb2 in order to be grammatical.
If you want to say "in order to do 1, do 2", you need the particle に.

はしごを登りに来い！　
はしごを下りに行け！
ご飯を食に来なさい。


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## cheshire

Correction:ご飯を食に来なさい。​ご飯を食べに来なさい。​ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

[VERB*1*] [VERB*2*]

In Japanese, verb1 must take place before verb2.


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## tkekte

Ah... I looked up the hanzi... I guess it's supposed to say "go to play"? Let's stick to Japanese.  "itte asobe" or "asobi ni ike", yes? 

I have another question now. "Go play alone!" --> "hitori de asobi ni ike!" (is that okay?) But that sounds bad, something like "go for the sake of playing alone". What about "hitori de itte asobe". Does that work? Or did I just write complete nonsense?


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## cheshire

tkekte said:


> Ah... I looked up the hanzi... I guess it's supposed to say "go to play"? Let's stick to Japanese.  "itte asobe" or "asobi ni ike", yes?
> 
> I have another question now. "Go play alone!" --> "hitori de asobi ni ike!" (is that okay?) But that sounds bad, something like "go for the sake of playing alone". What about "hitori de itte asobe". Does that work? Or did I just write complete nonsense?



Hello tkekte! itte asobu 行って　遊ぶ→ go and play
asobi ni iku 遊び*に*行く→ go in order to play

"hitori de asobi ni ike!"  Natural. This can mean both "Go and play alone." and "Go alone and play."
"hitori de itte asobe"Ａｌｓｏ natural. This means "Go alone and play."​


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