てくる vs ていく

Japanese
#1

This is a good example of where my confusion can start to take over with these two grammar points.

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Now I first off want to state that it did take my answer of もらってくる as correct as well, I simply want to understand better.

In this example it a sentence for the ていく point and clearly directs to it with the “receive and go” but as I said accepts てくる as well

What I am confused about is how exactly does this make sense ever for ていく? My understanding is くる refers to the spot of the speaker, and therefore if we are sitting in our house and say to our family member “Hey, I’m gonna go get some medicine at the store” This has an implicit “and then I’ll come back” to it right?

So もらっていく would mean “receive and go (to a different place than I am currently as I speak)” Right? This isn’t an impossible situation of course, maybe you’re in the car or out or something already. But I just feel as though I need to make this thread to confirm this as I have often struggled with てくる and ていく in the past and a review sentence like this that seems to want the answer of ていく when I feel like it is 90% going to be more often a situation for てくる confuses me and makes me wonder if I am again not thinking of it correctly

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#2

I think, in the first half you there’s a 行って so you could have been on your house or car (or anywhere else) before, but you will go to the doctor. Then, after receiving the medicine, will return くる to your current place, or go いく to another place (maybe also including your current place as well, but by that point you wouldn’t be there anymore). :thinking:

We can’t know where the person will go on the second half anyway because we miss necessary context, so Bunpro just accepts both answers I guess.

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#3

I know that the Japanese is literally saying to “receive and go” but the better way to think about this in English is the opposite, to “go and receive” or to “go get” medicine.

If you use てくる, it sounds like someone will “come to get” medicine. So since there’s no subject indicated in the sentence, both options are acceptable.

Anyway, that’s how I think about these (at least in this context, since there are other ways to use these two grammar structures), but I could be wrong. Hope it helps though.

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#4

I find this to be extremely confusing. In something like 行ってきます, you are saying that you will be going, and then returning back to the current position you are speaking from correct? So why in an instance like this would it then flip entirely? Why is it is now もらってくる means to come and then receive? Do you mean like, if it’s referring to a different subject than the speaker, that they will be receiving and coming to the location of our speaker. But if the speaker is referring to their own actions then it will go back to what I said, where もらってくる is saying they will go get it and then return to their own position?

I apologize for writing so much, but I just want to double-check my own beliefs on the issue. てくる should always be referring to the speakers location correct? So what is the lynchpin for which meaning here is the subject in your belief? If it’s us (the speaker) that is the subject, then we will do A action then くる back to “here” but if were referring to someone else, they are going to do A’s action TO here, i.e “come” to our current spot?

#5

What you have to understand is that it’s not the Japanese that changes, it’s the English that requires it for it to sound natural. IOW, the order of the actions changes in the English (NOT in the Japanese).

Anyway, I believe this video will answer all of your questions as long as you keep this in mind:

HTH!

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