First things first, this is our 600th daily lesson!

This calls for celebration:

Now back to work!

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No language is perfect.

Our native languages often lack the perfect words for expressing the mess of thoughts and emotions us humans experience. Maybe there are some alien languages out there that will clear all of this up for us eventually, but "Wait for the aliens" is probably not a good method of figuring out how to differentiate your "love" of delicious food from your "love" of, uh, I don't know, your mom, or figuring out how both of these types of "love" do not include the dash of lust in the way you have "love" for a romantic partner.

Take the verb "to take" for example. It means pretty different things in these sets of sentences:

- Hey! She took my cupcake! Thief! Scoundrel!
- I can't take it anymore. It's driving me crazy!
- Why are you taking your laptop to the movie theater?

In the examples above, the first "take" is a willful taking of something, the second "take" is more passive, and the third take means "to carry or move something to a place."

If we had to pick a Japanese verb for that last one, maybe it would be 持つ (もつ // to hold; to take; to carry; to have). Or perhaps we'd even go for 持って行く (もっていく // to take // Literally: "hold [and] + go"). And who knows what verb we'd use in the second case, since that version of "take" is quite figurative.

That first one, though, "willful take" is probably 取る (とる // to take). The verb 取る can have all kinds of meanings, by the way.

Yes. My... point. I have one of those.

I came across the verb 受け取る (うけとる) the other day, and I thought that the difference between this verb and 取る was intriguing.

Listing the English meanings of these words isn't all that helpful:

受ける（うける // to receive; to undergo）
取る（とる // to take）
受け取る（うけとる // to take; to get）

But what's happening in the 受け取る combo makes a bit more sense when we see these verbs in sentences:

ティッシュ1枚取って。
ティッシュ　いちまい　とって。
Can you hand me a tissue?
Literally: “tissue + one (thin, flat object) + take (and).”

超ショック受けた。
ちょう　ショック　うけた.
I was really shocked.
Literally: “super- + shock + received / underwent.”

レシート受け取った？
レシート　うけとった？
Did you get a [the] receipt?
Literally: “receipt + got / took?”

Still don't get what I mean? Then consider this. I was playing Fallout 4 in Japanese once, and some character in the game offered a special gun to me. In the game, these were two of my options:

- 受け取る（うけとる // Take [Accept].）
- 受け取らない（うけとらない // Don't take [accept].）

I'm not sure what the English says in the original game, since I've never played Fallout 4 in English. In any case, note that if you 取る someone's gun, then you are probably stealing it. It's certainly not being handed to you as a gift. But if you 受け取る someone's gun, then you are "taking" it the way you "take a compliment," for example. You accept-receive-take it.

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But enough about 受け取る specifically. We've already seen both 取る and 受ける in a number of lessons so far. We even had a lesson exclusively focusing on the many meanings of 受ける：[NDL #79] - Undergoing Word Surgery.

Rather, let's focus on this very interesting pattern that occurs in Japanese:

ます-stem ＋ VERB

VERBS:
受ける（うける // to receive; to undergo）
取る（とる // to take）

ます-VERBS:
受けます（うけます // receive; undergo）
取ります（とります // take）

ます-stems of VERBS:
受け-（うけ-）
取り-（とり-）

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The practice of adding VERBS to the ます-stems of other VERBS is quite common in Japanese.

In most cases, the changes in the verbs' meanings is a lot easier to understand than it is with 受け取る.

Examples follow...

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やる（やる // to do）
＋
直す（なおす // to fix; to repair）
＝
やり直す（やりなおす // to do over; to start over）

宿題やった？
しゅくだい　やった？
Did you do your homework?
Literally: “homework + did?”

自分でiPhoneを直した。
じぶん　で　アイフォン　を　なおした。
I fixed my iPhone by myself.
Literally: “oneself + で + iPhone + を + fixed.”

人生やり直したい。
じんせい　やりなおしたい。
I want to redo my whole life. // I wish I could start my life over.
Literally: “life + want to redo / want to start over.”

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探す（さがす // to look for; to search）
＋
回る（まわる // to turn; to revolve）
＝
探し回る（さがしまわる // to look all over; to search up and down）

一緒に探してくれない？
いっしょ　に　さがして　くれない？
Will you help me look for it?
Literally: “together + に + search / look for (and) + won’t give (me)?”

目回った。
め　まわった。
I got dizzy.
Literally: “eye + spun / turned / revolved.”

家中探し回ったけど、どこにもなかった。
いえじゅう（うちじゅう）　さがしまわった　けど、　どこ　にも　なかった。
I searched all over the house, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.
Literally: “all through the house + looked all over / searched up and down + けど (=but), + no where (=where + にも) + was not.”

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If you pay attention throughout your encounters with Japanese, then you'll find that there are quite a lot of verbs that are capable of combining with one another like this.

Every time you hear one, perhaps it would be worthwhile to imagine how the meanings of these verbs are changing when they are combined.

That's what I'm going to try to do, at least. *_*