68893
Good evenings folks,

Currently I'm here in Tokyo learning Japanese for about 2 months now from
scratch, and our sensei is teaching us N4 level grammar structures already. My
question is, what's the difference between ~te oku vs regular masu form? For
example:

> 旅行の前にきっぷをかいます。

vs

> 旅行の前にきっぷをかっておきます。

For me, both of them have a meaning similar to `Before going on a trip, I'm
going to buy a ticket`, so I'm having a hard time knowing what the difference
is.

P.S. sorry for putting wrong tag, I don't know which category my question
belongs to.
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2019-06-16T10:37:26.973
68891
2019-06-16T23:14:44.273
2019-06-16T23:14:44.273
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question
grammar nuances subsidiary-verbs
~te + oku vs plain masu form
You aren't wrong that they could both be translated "Before going on a trip,
I'm going to buy a ticket". But, there's a slight difference in context/nuance
provided.

> 旅行の前にきっぷをかいます。really focuses on the action of buying a ticket. You will
> simply buy a ticket before you go on the trip. You aren't implying any sort
> of preparation.
>
> 旅行の前にきっぷをかっておきます。adds the nuance that you are doing something ahead of time,
> or for convenience. You are therefore perhaps not emphasising the action
> itself, but that you are doing it in advance.

In this example sentence, it is perhaps a bit of an odd sentence without the
ておく, because of the 旅行の前に, which I think limits the contexts in you would say
this: usually I think you would only stress that you buy a ticket _before a
trip_ in order to show that you are/intend to be prepared, as you generally
can't buy tickets to travel after you have started your trip. I think if you
look at other examples it might help your understanding.

> 鍵をここに置きました。I put a key here. (just talking about the action, maybe no
> particular reason behind the action whatsoever)
>
> 鍵をここに置いておきました。I put a key here. (on purpose, so that I/someone else can use
> it later)
>
> ビールを買いました。I bought some beer. (focusing on the action, perhaps talking about
> a series of events of what I did that day, or when asked what I bought at
> the supermarket)
>
> ビールを買っておきました。I bought some beer. (focusing on the preparation I did, maybe
> for a party I'm having!)

So, when thinking about if you should use Vておく, think about the intent behind
the action. If it is done for some sort of advance preparation, for the
speaker or someone else, then consider using Vておく. If you just want to focus
on the action itself, then you can just use Vます.
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2019-06-16T11:25:32.273
68893
2019-06-16T11:31:11.117
2019-06-16T11:31:11.117
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68891
answer