# Commands and Requests (levels of politeness)



## AmaryllisBunny

So I have learned a few ways of making requests and commands, but was wondering if there were more with varying levels of politeness.

勉強しをお願いします Request
勉強してください Request
勉強しなければならない Command
勉強しなければなりません Command (丁寧語）
勉強しなさい（ませ）Command
勉強しろ Command

Are there others?


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## karlalou

勉強しをお願いします Request  mm.. I don't know what you want to say..><
勉強してください Request 
勉強しなければならない Command  It just says 'have to'
勉強しなければなりません Command (丁寧語） a little polite version of above
勉強しなさい（ませ）Command  Though I don't think anyone says this with ませ these days.
勉強しろ Command  A bit rough way of saying but quite common among men to their juniors.

You want to be more polite to say "Study"? mm..

勉強しましょう（ね）is rather gentle and friendly version. If it's used among friends it sounds very decent. With ね at the end of it, it's more friendly so suitable even for a 6 or 7 years old.
勉強いたしましょう would be said at a very formal occasion or by a person who prefer that way.

勉強しないと（しなきゃ）いけません is another "have to" and also can be a word to rebuke a student.


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## AmaryllisBunny

Are there any other ways? I find the volitional 勉強しましょう　勉強しよ。


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## Shiratori99

勉強しなさい　can be abbreviated to 勉強しな (informal)

勉強しなければならない　is commonly abbreviated to 勉強しなきゃ, 勉強しなくちゃ or 勉強しないと (informal)

勉強してちょうだい　is a type of request similar to ください


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## AmaryllisBunny

Is there any way of using 「お願いします」 for this type of request or is it used for "objects?" 　。。。て＋ちょうだい（頂戴）ｖｓ。。。て＋ください（下さい）Between these two, which is more polite and/or higher register? And for the two, the 「漢字」for 「ください」is not often used, but what about 「ちょうだい」？

Thank you!

Also, is there a way of ordering all of them in terms of politeness, as well as "requests" vs "commands?"

Lastly, for the abbreviations proposed, is that how it would be said (じゃないｖｓではない) or would it be considered less polite?


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## Shiratori99

AmaryllisBunny said:


> Is there any way of using 「お願いします」 for this type of request or is it used for "objects?"



I guess you could say 勉強してお願いします.



AmaryllisBunny said:


> 。。。て＋ちょうだい（頂戴）ｖｓ。。。て＋ください（下さい）Between these two, which is more polite and/or higher register?



I think they are similar, not sure which of them is more polite, sorry.



AmaryllisBunny said:


> And for the two, the 「漢字」for 「ください」is not often used, but what about 「ちょうだい」？



I think ちょうだい is usually written in kanji.



AmaryllisBunny said:


> Also, is there a way of ordering all of them in terms of politeness, as well as "requests" vs "commands?"



Didn't karlalou already do that? ^^



AmaryllisBunny said:


> Lastly, for the abbreviations proposed, is that how it would be said (じゃないｖｓではない) or would it be considered less polite?



勉強しな is informal and pretty rude. You'd usually use しなさい. About 勉強しなきゃ etc, they're informal. They're very widely used in everyday speech, but if you want to be very formal you should use the full phrase I guess.


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## AmaryllisBunny

Shiratori99 said:


> Didn't karlalou already do that? ^^



For the most part yes! I was wondering how strong the commands were as well. I find it difficult to gauge how polite or impolite how strong or imperative the command...

My problem is that the volitional is a group command whereas the others are directed. That is what I wanted to focus on moreso.


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## Flaminius

Shiratori99 said:


> I guess you could say 勉強してお願いします.


No, you can't.  Unless it's a juxtaposition, that is.  Even then, the arrangement is awkward because the speech levels do not match between して and お願いします.


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## AmaryllisBunny

Flaminius said:


> No, you can't.  Unless it's a juxtaposition, that is.  Even then, the arrangement is awkward because the speech levels do not match between して and お願いします.



How would it be phrased then?


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## Flaminius

Do you mean how you can use お願いします in a command?  Make a noun out of the verb.  One possibility is:
勉強するようにお願いします。
This is too formal for your purpose though.


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## karlalou

If you want to use お願いします then it'll be お願いだから、勉強して！（＝勉強してちょうだい！＝勉強しなさい！＝勉強するんですよ！＝ etc.）

Oh, you wanted to be polite! mm..let me think..


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## karlalou

In an office environment, maybe you would say これを勉強しておいてください。よろしくお願いします。or this is similar to Flaminius' but 勉強しておくようお願いします。but I say for politeness, it'll be これを勉強しておいてください。よろしくお願い(致)します。That's it.


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## AmaryllisBunny

karlalou said:


> （＝勉強してちょうだい！＝勉強しなさい！＝勉強するんですよ！＝ etc.）



So all those are equivalent? None is more forceful or polite/impolite than the other?

Is it also possible to say

勉強する事にお願いします？

Thank you so much!


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## karlalou

Yeah.. I think 勉強してちょうだい！＝勉強しなさい！＝勉強するんですよ！, those are all about the same and it's more up to the tone of voice.

No, we don't say 勉強する事にお願いします.
OK. I think you can say 勉強（すること）をお願いします but there's other ways of saying the same thing so not usually anyone says that..


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## 810senior

こうかな？

Other possibilities:
（あなたが）勉強することを願います。
勉強するよう（に）お願いします。
勉強します（or して下さいます）ようお願い致します。 most polite


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## frequency

AmaryllisBunny said:


> 勉強しなければならない Command
> 勉強しなければなりません Command (丁寧語）


AB, they are suggestions and statements telling the hearer's status. So it's hard for me to say they are polite or not.
But I humbly suggest you that they may be a bit strong statements to the hearer.
As you know, when you say 'You have to study', it works both of suggestion and command-like suggestion.

勉強しなさい and 勉強してください are very typical: you can use them as criteria to compare various patterns.


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