Page 471 - Basic Japanese

Jon-san ga haha ni chokorēto o kuremashita.
John gave my mother chocolate.

Haha ga watashi ni chokorēto o kuremashita.
My mother gave me chocolate.

*Watashi ga haha ni chokorēto o kuremashita ‘I gave my mother

chocolate’ is UNGRAMMATICAL because the recipient is less

close to the speaker than the giver, although the recipient is
the speaker’s insider. Once kuremashita is replaced by

agemashita, as in Watashi ga haha ni chokorēto o agemashita, the
sentence becomes grammatical. When the giving event

takes place among the speaker’s insiders, excluding the