82099
> 1.熱があるときは、お風呂に入るのはやめておいたほうがいいですね。
>
> 2.クリスマスツリーの木を見つけてくれるように頼んでおいたの。
>
> 3.考えておくわ。

I can try to understand the meaning of 「ておく」 in the first and second
sentences, it might mean "to do sth in advance", right? But how does it work
in the third sentence 「考えておくわ。」, which means "Let me think about it." Thanks!
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-14T15:18:52.113
82091
2020-10-15T06:53:34.070
40606
question
grammar meaning
What does 「ておく」 mean in the following three sentences?
I'm going to venture out on a limb here and try my best at these three
sentences.

The nuances here are subtle and are very hard to convey in translation. I'm
going to start with the 2nd sentence you posted because it seems the easiest
to explain.

> クリスマスツリーの木を見つけてくれるように頼んでおいたの。

I might translate this as, "have you asked them to find your Christmas Tree?"
I think that's fairly literal. A bit less literal, I might put it as, "have
you asked them to pick out your Christmas Tree for you?"

But this could easily be the translation for

> クリスマスツリーの木を見つけてくれるように頼んだの。

So, what's the difference? In this case, I would say the difference is that
頼んだの is just saying "did you ask?" But, 頼んでおいたの has more of the sense of "have
you put in your request [yet]?" Christmas trees sell out, getting a Christmas
tree is not something you necessarily want to put off to the last minute. So,
you plan ahead and make your request ahead of time, hence the use of the ておく
construction.

* * *

OK. So, let's try to tackle the 3rd sentence.

> 考えておくわ。

> I'll think about it.

The speaker could have easily said,

> 考えるわ

But that sounds like they're not necessarily taking the _matter_ very
seriously. 考えておく sounds like they're definitely going to put some thought
into.

* * *

OK. So, now let's look at the 1st sentence.

> 熱があるときは、お風呂に入るのはやめておいたほうがいいですね。

> When you're running a fever, it's best not to take a bath.

I suspect (and here I'd love feedback from the native speakers) that, if you
said something like,

> 熱があるときは、お風呂に入るのはやめたほうがいいですね。

it sounds like you're saying, "When you're running a fever, it's best to quit
your bath." I suspect this rewording sounds like you get in the bath and
realize your running a fever and so you decide it's best get out of the bath.
And actually, I suspect this sentence probably doesn't sound very fluent in
Japanese.

I think the best way to capture the nuance of the original version of this
sentence in translation is to say something like

> When you're running a fever, it's best to avoid taking baths.

Here I think " _avoid taking_ baths" best captures the sense to ておく because
you're thinking ahead and doing (by not doing) something, which in this case
is not taking a bath.

It seems to me that the speaker could just as easily said

> 熱があるときは、お風呂に入らないほうがいいですね。

This is something I might say as a non-native speaker, but (again I suspect
that) this comes across a bit less natural to the Japanese ear because this
sentence just fails to capture the idea that stewing yourself in a hot bath is
probably not what you should be doing (is what you should be _avoiding_ )
while running a fever.

This is one of those sentences that, when I hear it, I'm reminded of the
subtle nuances Japanese is able to convey that are completely lacking in
English. And when I hear something like this, I recognize that it sounds so
_typically Japanese_ while knowing I'd never think to word it this way. (Hence
I'll never speak particularly fluently.)
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2020-10-15T02:23:44.980
82099
2020-10-15T02:50:06.477
2020-10-15T02:50:06.477
4875
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82091
answer
Trying to give a concise answer - `ておく` means doing something in preparation
for something in the future.  
So `考えておく` can be roughly translated as "I will think about it in order to be
prepared".  
_P.S._ Without the context I could not provide more details, but I hope it is
enough.
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2020-10-15T06:53:34.070
82105
2020-10-15T06:53:34.070
40614
82091
answer