JLPT N4 grammar · Chapter 18

～(さ)せてください

Please let me do this

You'll be able to ask permission to take an action while showing that the decision belongs to the listener.

Illustration of the scene described by Please let me help.

Read it first

私わたしに手伝てつだわせてください。

watashi ni tetsudawasete kudasai.

What do you think this sentence means?

Please let me help.

Why it means that

Ask to be allowed to act

Causative て-form + ください asks permission for the speaker to perform an action. It often translates as “please let me.”

Example

もう一度もういちど説明せつめいさせてください。

mou ichido setsumei sasete kudasai.

Please let me explain once more.

How it is built

Form and use ～(さ)せてください

Make the causative first: 説明せつめいする→説明せつめいさせる→説明せつめいさせてください. The speaker is normally the person asking to act, not someone requesting that a third person be forced.

Causative verb て-form+ください

Examples

もう一度もういちど説明せつめいさせてください。

mou ichido setsumei sasete kudasai.

Please let me explain once more.

ここで少すこし休やすませてください。

koko de sukoshi yasumasete kudasai.

Please let me rest here for a while.

Examples

今日きょうは私わたしに払はらわせてください。

kyou wa watashi ni harawasete kudasai.

Please let me pay today.

熱ねつがあるので、今日きょうは早はやく帰かえらせてください。

netsu ga aru node, kyou wa hayaku kaerasete kudasai.

I have a fever, so please let me go home early today.

その仕事しごと、ぜひ私わたしにやらせてください。

sono shigoto, zehi watashi ni yarasete kudasai.

Please let me do that job.

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