# くださり, ください



## Ilmen

Hello everybody. ♪

In the thread called *Noun ありがとうございます*, Flaminius and me were discussing about the possible presence of a hidden verb くださる before the expression ありがとうございます to explain the possibility of using the accusative particle before this expression to mark towards what we are grateful:
「お手紙を（くださり）ありがとうございます」.

However, I read later —*in this article*, just under the table in the section "i-form"— that the i-form of 下さる is irregular:


			
				Wikipedia said:
			
		

> The rule for polite verbs ending in る ru applies to the consonant-stem honorific verbs いらっしゃる irassharu, おっしゃる ossharu, くださる kudasaru, ござる gozaru, and なさる nasaru, which have irregular i forms. They are formed by replacing the ru with simply i, instead of ri.




So, is くださり wrong as the adverbial form of the verb くださる?

Thank you.


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## fitter.happier

Hi, Ilmen.

くださり is not wrong. As far as I know, it is the continuative form (連用形) of くださる and is often used in lieu of the て form in formal speech and writing. 
It is equivalent to お手紙を下さってありがとうございます. 

While you are right that くださる follows an irregular conjugation due to イ音便, I believe 手紙を下さい is purposely avoided because it would lead to confusion and sound like a request instead (_please give me a letter_), but let's hear what others have to say.


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## Flaminius

Apocope of _-r_ from the stem in _kudasar.u_ is mandatory when it takes _-i_ before _-masu_ (and perhaps a few other things but I cannot list them up for now).  Thus, _kudasaimasu_ instead of _kudasarimasu_.  The latter is not entirely incorrect but sounds rather old-fashioned.


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## Ilmen

fitter.happier said:


> Hi, Ilmen.
> 
> くださり is not wrong. As far as I know, it is the continuative form (連用形) of くださる and is often used in lieu of the て form in formal speech and writing.
> It is equivalent to お手紙を下さってありがとうございます.




Thus, does this verb have two different conjunctive form, くださり and ください, used in different cases, or are these two forms pertaining to two distinct grammatical classes?


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## xiaolijie

Ilmen said:


> Thus, does this verb have two different conjunctive form, くださり and ください, used in different cases, or are these two forms pertaining to two distinct grammatical class?


No, just くださり. 
ください, on the other hand, is only used for requests.


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## Ilmen

Oeps, I made a mistake, I wanted to mean くださり and くださって, and not ください, indeed. ^^''
So, I'll reiterate my question:
Does this verb have two different conjunctive form, くださり and くださって, used in different cases, or are these two forms pertaining to two distinct grammatical classes?

I'm leaded to wonder this because of what *Kenmori* has said in this other thread: *Cute and small :: post #16*.


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## xiaolijie

Ilmen said:


> Does this verb have two different conjunctive form, くださり and くださって, used in different cases, or are these two forms pertaining to two distinct grammatical classes?
> 
> I'm leaded to wonder this because of what *Kenmori* has said in this other thread: *Cute and small :: post #16*.


Yes, just as with other verbs in Kenmori's post, the two conjunctive forms くださり and くださって specialise in diferent registers of the language:  くださり is normally in the formal & written medium whereas くださって is more in the colloquial. 
(Bear in mind that くださり can also end a sentence, but this is separate question that should not concern us here.)


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## Ilmen

Thanks.  Therefore, to put it in a nutshell, the verb くださる has two conjunctive forms: くださって (colloquial) and くださり (formal), and one irregular adverbial form ください. Is that all right?

Moreover, I've heard that the ください used for polite command ("please...") is not the adverbial form but the imperative one (irregular).


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## Flaminius

Ilmen, the adverbial form for くださる is two-fold.  One is くださり as in the archaic くださりませ and so on.  The other is ください as in くださいます.  Even though the former is archaic, the consonantal-stem is latent in くださった (In other words, the latent _-r_ is the precondition for gemination _-tta_. An example for this is wakar.u -> wakatta).

Another point that makes me hesitate from driving くださり out of the adverbial paradigm is the gerund-like くださり as in くださりもの or a gift.  Maybe it is more logical to think the gerund is derived from the adverbial form than from the conjunctive form?


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## Ilmen

So you think that it's the adverbial form that is two-fold, and not the conjunctive one? ... Yes, it makes sense. Indeed, the adverbial form of every verb, whatever it is regular or not, can be used as a formal equivalent of the conjunctive form. Therefore, we can safely assume that くださる has a single conjunctive form, くださって, and two adverbial forms, くださり (that can bu used as a formal conjunctive just like every regular adverbial form does) and ください (used for the masu-form and similar uses).

Is this closer to the truth?


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## Flaminius

Yes, that's what I meant.  Then again, if there is only one conjunctive form, would it not be simpler to call it just the _te_-form?


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## Ilmen

Yes, it is. 
Thank you for your valuable help. I have no further question. ^^


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